India to setup new airbases in Andaman Island

[Always Neutral]

Could be true, but still helicopters and maybe hovercrafts would be faster and better choices, to land, or patrol around those islands than LSTs.

The subs will of course be deployed around these islands, but don't have to be stationed there (only 40Km away from Myanmar), when better protected naval bases on the mainland should be not too far away.
Not sure if this map is correct, but Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam, or Chennai should be safer stations for IN subs or?

How can I argue with the Indian Lord Nelson above who cannot understand why Indian Navy

1. Has positioned LST(M) and LST(L) and LCU's there ? Have you ever visited those Islands ? You can visit as a tourist there now days.
2. The Hovercrafts he talks have a sea state limitations and the Indian Navy is not the US Navy ?
3. The do not carry Amphibious BMP's
4. The Indian Navy does not have hover crafts the Indian Coastguard has ?
5. Does not understand the advantage to keep a Kilo class submarine in Andaman at 24 hrs readiness to sail than to wait for one to arrive from the Eastern Seaboard after 12 days of sailing and then let loiter aimlessly on a patrol? Burma is not a hostile country btw.

Anyway you come across as a petulant child who has no clue about the Indian Navy or any navy and nor do you care to analyse the reasons why my thinking is the same as your Chiefs.

Regards

 

[sancho]

If I would have much knowledge about the navy, I wouldn't ask right? That's the point in beeing in forums, you can ask and get more knowledge about things you don't know!

The Indian Navy does not have hover crafts the Indian Coastguard has ?

I know, but you was talking about patroling around and landing on these islands, so the cost guard can't patrol around these islands? Wouldn't exactly their hovercrafts be perfect and more useful to be stationed there?

Does not understand the advantage to keep a Kilo class submarine in Andaman at 24 hrs readiness to sail than to wait for one to arrive from the Eastern Seaboard after 12 days of sailing and then let loiter aimlessly on a patrol? Burma is not a hostile country btw.

And you think subs stationed there with 24h readiness are more important than MPA, MP fighters and ASW corvettes, that can search a way bigger area for enemy subs, or vessels and have much shorter reaction time, so would be way more useful there with a 24h readyness?
Btw, Burma might not, but China is!

...The Chinese are also believed to be establishing a Signals Intelligence facility on the Coco's islands, not very far from the Andaman islands, reportedly to monitor Indian missile tests off the Orissa coast.

China is also reportedly training Myanmar naval intelligence officials and helping the country execute surveys of its coastline contiguous to India.

Indian fears over Beijing's ambitions in the Indian Ocean region (IOR) gained credence in 1994 after the Coast Guard detained three Chinese trawlers with Myanmar flags. The trawlers were equipped with sophisticated tracking and surveying equipment. The crew was arrested on charges of spying.

Despite the navy's protests, bolstered by the security agencies, the crew was released by the government a few months later under pressure from Beijing, ahead of the annual meeting of the symbolic Sino-Indian Joint Working Group to work out the long standing unresolved territorial dispute between the two neighbours.

Chinese ambitions in the IOR also led to India raising the military's first joint command on the Andamans with headquarters at Port Blair in 2001.

'Till now China has been a land neighbour, but through Burma it may soon become our maritime neighbour,' a naval officer said. Such moves by Beijing of encircling India merit serious attention, the officer said.

Why India courts Myanmar's military junta? - Monsters and Critics

So once again, why station important and costly subs so close to a known threat, when maritime patrol aircrafts, fighters and vessels are way more useful to be stationed there and won't be such an interesting target?
Even if the subs are stationed at the main naval bases of eastern comand, they can patrol easily around those island or?

 

[Mister X]

Andaman and Nicobar to become a major amphibious warfare base

PTI
Monday, February 8, 2010 20:29 IST

Port Blair: India is planning to convert its Andaman and Nicobar tri-services command into an major amphibious warfare hub by setting up full-fledged training facilities and basing a sea-and-land fighting unit to provide teeth to its capability to take the battle into enemy shores.

With over 550 islands dotting the strategically located spot in the Bay of Bengal with near 500 of them still uninhabited, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands provide the Indian armed forces the ideal landscape to train its troops on amphibious warfare, which entails landing on the beaches of the enemy territory and taking the gun fight right into the mainland.

"There are plans to have an amphibious warfare training facility in the Andaman and Nicobar islands just as the jungle and guerrilla warfare school that the Army has in the North East.

"The hundreds of virgin islands here provide the ideal training facility for the troops to gain expertise in the specialist operations," a senior officer from the Andaman and Nicobar Command told PTI here.

The tri-services command here, which came up in 2001 after a need for a joint all-service formation was felt, already has
surface units to support amphibious operations, which are difficult manoeuvres considering that the troops are exposed
to greater risks while entering open landscape in hostile territories.

The Command here already has naval surface vessels such as a large Landing Ship Tank (LST) that can carry about 220 fully
armed troops along with six trucks, 10 main battle tanks and 12 infantry combat vehicles at the same time for long duration. In fact, it could carry 800-men battalion too for shorter duration.

The vessel also has a medium LST, apart from several Landing Craft Utility (LCU) with capacity to carry 35 armed troops right up to the beach and land there, the officer said.

The LST’s support is very important for storming enemy land or bases to provide the shock effect with the armoured vehicles using their fire power to inflict maximum damage to the adversary.

The Command at present has a Brigade comprising three battalions, two from the Army and one from the Territorial Army, deployed in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The only dedicated amphibious warfare Brigade of the Army is currently posted somewhere in the south-eastern coast of
India. Lakshwadeep Islands on the east coast is where the Army’s Brigade currently carries out its practice session and
exercises.

However, Andaman and Nicobar having a Command headquarters based here would have a greater role to play in honing the skills of the Indian troops, the officer added.

Incidentally, India had only last year inducted an indigenously built Landing Pontoon Dock (LPD), a warship larger than LSTs that can support amphibious warfare and also act as a replenishment ship for navy battle ships operating away from the Indian waters.

Andaman and Nicobar to become a major amphibious warfare base - dnaindia.com

 

[sancho]

India To Boost Island Defenses To Counter China

NEW DELHI - India plans to upgrade weapons and equipment stationed at its bases on the Andaman and Nicobar island chains in the eastern Indian Ocean, a step intended to bolster defenses against China, according to defense officials here.

The Indian Air Force will place multirole Su-30MKI fighter jets on the islands and increase the number of operational airfields. Two airstrips, at Shibpur in the Andamans and at Campbell Bay in the Nicobar Islands, will be converted into all-weather bases that can support fighter operations, a senior Air Force official said.The military also will station additional mid-air refuelers, and a variety of medium- and short-range UAVs, to keep a watch on the Chinese military base in Myanmar's nearby Coco Islands, sources said. In addition, the military will increase the number of amphibious vessels and Mi-17 combat and transport helicopters stationed in the region.
The Indian Navy also plans to buy assets and network-centric warfare systems to protect what a Navy officer called "India's island territories, which are vulnerable."
The Andaman and Nicobar chains comprise 572 islands. The southernmost islands in the Nicobar archipelago are less than 100 kilometers from Indonesia. In 2001, the Indian military established a joint command in the region to boost its ability to rapidly deploy troops there.

India To Boost Island Defenses To Counter China - Defense News

 

[zeus]

That's a couple of Su-30MKI's... and some Jaguar's..

To be Precise they are Sukhoi Su 30k check no Canards and no TVC and Serial No is 007 thats old K