Infact a carrier strike force will be essential part of the strategy to Blockade Pakistani coast.
Even before beginning of hostilities, Carrier strike group will sail out into Arabian Sea and will be positioned near Pakistan western supply port of Gwadar, while another fleet will converge on Karachi.
In their primary role, Carriers are likely to fulfill Air defence cover for Naval ship carrying out strike missions Pakistani harbors...while keeping out of the range of Pakistani land based strike aircrafts.
In their secondary role they might carry out strike missions against Pakistani ships themselves.
Such will create multitude of problems for Pakistani armed forces, as essentially they have been flanked by the enemy, while the main punch comes from East, they would be looking over their shoulder as the enemy might strike from South and South West.
Atleast someone understands the intricacies of Naval Blockade.
This was one of my first posts regarding blockading Pakistan. I'm reposting it here because most people do not understand the scale of problems facing PN.
There is a lot being talked about the naval economic blockade being imposed by IN over Pakistan, and the subsequent possibility/probability of the endeavour being successful. I'll just provide my understanding of the Naval blockade .
The imposition of the naval blockade by the IN will be a combination of three distinct actions:
1.
Announcement of the blockade: The announcement of the blockade will in itself set off a chain of adverse effects for the Pakistan govt.
The ships belonging to neutral shipping corporations/disinterested parties will almost immediately avoid sailing Pakistan, (and to Mumbai harbour I imagine).
That leaves the Pakistan merchant fleet and the ships from "friendly" countries who'd risk their ships breaking Indian blockade.
A quick search of the wikipedia reveals Pak Merchanct Navy having just 9 vessels. No atter how I look at it, without aggressive and risky support from friendly nations, the Pakistan Merchant fleet cannot keep up supplies through the IN blockade.
That's stage one, and even without IN active involvement the supply lines have already been stretched taut.
2.
The destruction of vital port infrastructure: The next action would logically be destruction/crippling of Pakistani port infrastructure.
The key targets for this would obviously include the loading/unloading cranes, the fuel storage facilities and other allied assets, if not the destruction of the berthing facilities.
Pak has just 3 major harbours for large ships, if my knowledge serves me right. It is not unbelievable that IN would be successful in destroying/damaging the operations of the ports. Such destruction would cripple the ability to unload the supplies arriving, achieving the same effect as chocking the supply lines.
This sounds all the more plausible given the weak SAM coverage over Pak airspace.
3.
The actual physical blockade by IN ships enforcing the blockade with a forceful posture, some 200 kms outside PN shores: The new carrier(s) and their associated fighters will provide adequate protection against naval maritime strike aircraft, though coverage against SSKs will reduce considerably as the IN ships move further away from Indian shores towards Gwadar, which is also
where I'd assume the PN sub fleet would have the highest chance of success in breaching the IN blockade.
