Indian Navy Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta Spells Out Vision 2022

[nitesh]

Daily Excelsior....News Page

Govt may set up Coastal Command

NEW DELHI, Dec 19: In the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks, the Centre is likely to set up Coastal Command in each of the nine Coastal States in line with Unified Command structure currently operating in Jammu and Kashmir and Assam.

Apart from a National Coastal Command, as declared by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, the Government is contemplating setting up of such a structure in each of the coastal States to avoid multiplicity among security forces, better coordination and speedy results, Home Ministry sources said.

The Coastal Commands would comprise Navy, Coast Guard, Marine Wing of the State police and Central Security Agencies.

Such structures would come up in line with Unified Command comprising Army, Central Paramilitary organisations, Intelligence agencies and State police which is currently operating in Jammu and Kashmir and Assam.

Like Unified Command, the Coastal Command in each State would be headed by either Chief Minister or Chief Secretary while the Navy or Coast Guard area chief will head the operational structure, the sources said.

However, the Centre will take consent from all the nine States — Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal — before taking a final decision.

According to the proposal, the National Coastal Command will look after the security aspects of the four Union Territories.

The issue is likely to come up during the meeting of the Police Chiefs of Coastal States and Union Territories which is likely to be held soon.

The meeting will discuss strategies to fine tune security along the country’s 7,516-km coastline.

The Coastal Commands will look after the security along the coastal areas where 12 major and 180 minor ports are located.

Better coordination among the Navy, Coast Guard and police has become necessary in view of the vulnerability of the coastline, sources said.

The Mumbai terror attack was the result of the country’s poor security along the coastline, they said.

The Coastal Commands of the States will ensure registration of fishing boats with the police department of the respective State to maintain a list of their owners and operations, they added.(PTI)

 

[nitesh]

The Hindu : Front Page : Radar cover for entire coastline

Radar cover for entire coastline

Sandeep Dikshit

Extra punch for Coast Guard

Nine more Coast Guard stations coming

Capability to include offensive operations

NEW DELHI: The government on Saturday cleared emergency purchases to add punch to the Coast Guard’s capability for surveillance and interception. A high-level meeting here, chaired by Defence Minister A.K. Antony, also approved nine more Coast Guard stations and radar coverage for the entire coastline. It identified vulnerable areas where additional ships and aircraft will be deployed.

Attended by Defence Secretary Vijay Singh, Coast Guard Director-General Vice Admiral Anil Chopra and Director-General (Acquisitions) Sashi Kant Sharma, the meeting took decisions that are the first in a series of steps to strengthen and overhaul homeland security.

This was the second meeting on reorienting the Coast Guard’s capabilities from surveillance and search and rescue to include offensive operations.

The Coast Guard will send a team abroad to evaluate purchase possibilities.

It was asked to lease or hire ships from the global market in the quickest possible time. Approval was accorded for acquisition of cutting-edge equipment and interceptor boats on a fast-track basis.

The proposal to set up additional Coast Guard Stations will be sent for Cabinet approval at the earliest.

The government is already evolving an integrated national emergency response system and looking at other measures including unmanned aerial vehicles for urban applications, a new generation of tactical weapons for the special forces such as handguns, communication systems and individual GPS systems.

Panel to be set up

PTI reports:

With the country’s 7,500-km coastline vulnerable to terrorist attacks, the Home Ministry has decided to set up a committee to go into the difficulties on account of fishing harbours within the port limits.

The panel will examine what could be done, taking into account fishermen’s livelihood issues, a Ministry official said.

 

[nitesh]

excerpts from:

http://www.hal-india.com/MinskSquareMatters-Issue67.pdf

BAeHAL on SWISS cruise

Bangalore: BAeHAL is on a roll. The successful execution of the contract to design and
develop a Ship Weapon Interlock Safety System (SWISS) for a specific class of warships
of the Indian Navy has brought the organization further orders for developing SWISS for
different classes of indigenously built Naval ships. These orders are under execution and to be completed during the next two years. BAeHAL won the first SWISS contract against tough competition with other Indian suppliers based on a global tender floated by the Navy. SWISS is intended to provide automatic safe usage of weapon systems fitted on the ship, when they are in simultaneous use and also to provide protection during the onboard operation of helicopter. In tech terms, SWISS is a full lifecycle realtime embedded system, the type of which has been executed for the first time by BAeHAL. It involves development of the complete system comprising hardware, software and integration in the factory and on the ship.

The BAeHAL team under the leadership of the CEO, Dr C. Subramanian, undertook the
requirement analysis, design and development of the SWISS project and completed it in
the stipulated timeframe. SWISS has been tested in the factory along with a simulator specially developed to generate operational conditions of the system and accepted by the customers prior to its installation on the ship. Harbour Acceptance Trials of the system have been successfully completed recently and the Navy has already planned the Sea Acceptance Trials.

 

[nitesh]

excerpts from:

http://www.hal-india.com/MinskSquareMatters-Issue67.pdf

BAeHAL on SWISS cruise

Bangalore: BAeHAL is on a roll. The successful execution of the contract to design and
develop a Ship Weapon Interlock Safety System (SWISS) for a specific class of warships
of the Indian Navy has brought the organization further orders for developing SWISS for
different classes of indigenously built Naval ships. These orders are under execution and to be completed during the next two years. BAeHAL won the first SWISS contract against tough competition with other Indian suppliers based on a global tender floated by the Navy. SWISS is intended to provide automatic safe usage of weapon systems fitted on the ship, when they are in simultaneous use and also to provide protection during the onboard operation of helicopter. In tech terms, SWISS is a full lifecycle realtime embedded system, the type of which has been executed for the first time by BAeHAL. It involves development of the complete system comprising hardware, software and integration in the factory and on the ship.

The BAeHAL team under the leadership of the CEO, Dr C. Subramanian, undertook the
requirement analysis, design and development of the SWISS project and completed it in
the stipulated timeframe. SWISS has been tested in the factory along with a simulator specially developed to generate operational conditions of the system and accepted by the customers prior to its installation on the ship. Harbour Acceptance Trials of the system have been successfully completed recently and the Navy has already planned the Sea Acceptance Trials.

 

[nitesh]

Excellent read about DRDO work:

http://www.drdo.com/dpi/The_Week,_Oct_08.pdf

 

[Super Falcon]

my indian friend chinese navy is not far behind the indian navy

 

[nitesh]

India to ink largest-ever defence deal with the US soon-India-The Times of India

India to ink largest-ever defence deal with the US soon
26 Dec 2008, 2313 hrs IST, Rajat Pandit , TNN

NEW DELHI: Even as tensions with Pakistan persist in the wake of 26/11, India is now poised to ink its biggest-ever defence deal with US: the
around Rs 8,500-crore contract for the supply of eight Boeing P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance (LRMR) aircraft for the Navy.

"Virtually all the steps'' required for the contract to be signed, including tabling of it in the Cabinet Committee on Security for approval, have been completed, said sources on Friday.

The first of these LRMR aircraft will be delivered within four years of the contract being actually signed, with the rest being handed over by 2015, said sources.

The LRMR planes will replace the eight ageing and fuel-guzzling Russian-origin Tupolev-142Ms. Customised for India and based on the Boeing 737 commercial airliner, the radar-packed P-8I aircraft will go a long way in plugging the huge gaps in Navy's maritime snooping capabilities with a range of over 600 nautical miles.

Incidentally, Navy is also in the hunt for six new medium-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft for around Rs 1,600 crore to achieve its aim of an effective three-tier surveillance grid in the entire Indian Ocean.

Both Navy and Coast Guard have come in for some criticism for not being able to pre-empt the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai, even though the two forces maintain that they did not get "actionable intelligence'' in time.

The P-8I aircraft will also be armed with Harpoon missiles, torpedoes and depth bombs to give them potent anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare capability. Moreover, they "will enhance interoperability'' between the Indian and American navies, in keeping with the growing strategic embrace between the two countries.

The LRMR deal will supplant last year's $962-million contract signed with US for six C-130J `Super Hercules' aircraft for use by Indian special forces.

US is still, however, leagues behind Russia, Israel and France in supplying military hardware and software to India. While Russia notches up sales worth about $1.5 billion to India every year, Israel chalks up an annual tally of around $1 billion.

Apart from the C-130J deal, America's only big-ticket deal with India in recent years has been the $190-million contract in 2002 to supply 12 AN/TPQ-37 firefinder weapon-locating radars.

Then, of course, India last year acquired amphibious transport vessel USS Trenton for $48.23 million, with the six UH-3H helicopters to operate from it costing another $39 million.

During its quest for LRMR planes, India had earlier rejected the US offer to lease two P-3C Orion reconnaissance aircraft under a $133-million contract. India, of course, remains unhappy over the American decision to sell eight more P-3C Orion aircraft to Pakistan, which already has two such planes in its inventory.

 

[nitesh]

Torpedoes unit to be set up in Vizag-Hyderabad-Cities-The Times of India

Torpedoes unit to be set up in Vizag
25 Dec 2008, 0410 hrs IST, TNN


VISAKHAPATNAM: The Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) would set up a production centre for torpedoes in Visakhapatnam soon. Director of Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL) V Bhujanga Rao said BDL has acquired the requisite land at Auto Nagar near Gajuwaka to establish the centre.

NSTL provides designs to the Hyderabad-based company BDL, which manufactures lightweight torpedoes.

Addressing a national symposium on acoustics organised by NSTL and Acoustical Society of India as part of the golden jubilee celebrations of DRDO here, Rao said NSTL is also conducting research in stealth technologies.

Top defence scientist and chief controller of DRDO, A Sivathanu Pillai, said the latest technologies in acoustics could be put to the best use in the fight against the menace of terrorism, check piracy besides safeguarding the long coastline of the country.

 

[nitesh]

Blue water blueprint ready to secure nation’s coastline

Blue water blueprint ready to secure nation’s coastline

New Delhi: One month after 10 terrorists breached the nation’s entire coastal security apparatus to launch Terror strikes in Mumbai, the UPA Government is set to create a new high-profile post of Maritime Security Adviser, who will be a three-star Vice Admiral of the Navy as part of the country’s new security blueprint.

The MSA will be assisted by a Maritime Security Advisory Board (MSAB) drawn from other ministries, security agencies and services, and a newly created Secretariat comprising one Rear Admiral, Five Commodores, 15 officers of the rank of Naval Captain and below, and 45 personnel.

In other words, the Government is creating a new maritime security command under the charge of the Indian Navy.

“Necessary coordination, including on policy issues, between maritime security agencies (Navy and Coast Guard) and other ministries at the apex level for issues related to overall maritime security (including offshore and coastal security) would be provided through the MSA,” says a proposal by the Ministry of Defence for the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS).

The MSA will initiate policy directives and “in the exercise of this authority, he would also be specifically empowered to coordinate and, where necessary, regulate through directives, the activities of other departments and/or agencies, from the security angle, of the Government of India, as also private players operating within the maritime domain,” it adds.

The proposal, initiated after the Mumbai attacks, borrows heavily from a 2001 post-Kargil report by a Group of Ministers on Border Management that suggested an apex body for management of maritime security affairs for institutional linkages between the Navy, Coast Guard and the ministries of the Central and state governments.

The creation of an MSA is meant to plug the holes that were exposed following the Mumbai attack where prior intelligence inputs on a Lashkar vessel in the sea could not be acted upon due to lack of coordination and turf wars between different agencies handling sea-based activities.

To address this, the proposal says that “new procedures and linkages” are required to be put in place. And underlines the need to “review existing responsibilities and linkages so as to substantially enhance analysis and dissemination of such information to consumers at all levels in a time-bound and accountable manner.”

The draft note also assigns accountability by designating the Coast Guard as the sole authority for coastal security right from the high tide line — including areas to be patrolled by the coastal police — with its Director General functioning as Commander-in-Chief, Coastal Command.

“However, the overall responsibility for coordinating maritime and offshore defence will be with the Indian Navy,” it says.

The Coast Guard functions between 12 and 200 nautical miles, which is the exclusive economic zone, while marine police keep watch inside the 12 nautical miles of territorial waters and the Navy beyond 200 nautical miles of blue water.

Besides seeking nine more Coast Guard stations, a static radar and Automatic Identification System (AIS) chain along the entire 7,516-km shoreline, the ministry’s Rs 6805-crore plan recommends a 1,000-strong specialized Sagar Prahari Bal equipped with 80 fast attack crafts to protect naval assets and other vital installations.

The strategy lays emphasis on extra security for Oil and gas installations by promulgating an Exclusion Zone of five nautical miles and No Fishing Zone around offshore infrastructure; installation of a Vessel and Air Traffic Management System at each offshore development fields; and, deploying Immediate Support Vessels — paid for by the oil companies — to guard all of them.

“Some of these programmes are already being implemented by oil firms following a directive from National Security Advisor M K Narayanan. Under the Crisis Management Plan, our offshore and coastal installations are guarded by Coast Guards using vessels hired or procured by the oil and gas exploration companies,” Petroleum Ministry officials said.

The new coastal security strategy also proposes to make it mandatory for all fishing boats to get registered with issue of biometric identity cards to all fishermen. It has earmarked Rs 100 crore to install AIS transponders on 3 lakh vessels below 300 tonnes weight for dynamic information on their identification, location, speed and course. As of now, International Maritime Organisation norms make transponders necessary for ships over 300 tonnes.

The Rs 6805-crore plan

The Men...

• Maritime Security Advisor will be assisted by a Maritime Security Advisory Board (MSAB) drawn from ministries, security agencies and services.

• And a Secretariat of one Rear Admiral, Five Commodores, 15 officers of the rank of Naval Captain and below, and 45 personnel.

• The MSA will coordinate between Navy and Coast Guard and ministries for overall maritime security

• New procedures and linkages to ensure smoother coordination

• Coast Guard sole authority for security from high-tide line

...AND THE MATERIAL

• Nine more Coast Guard stations

• Static radar and automatic identification system (AIS) chain along 7,516-km shoreline

• 1,000-strong specialised Sagar Prahari Bal with 80 fast attack crafts

• Mandatory registration for all fishing boats with biometric ID cards to all fishermen

• AIS transponders on 3 lakh vessels below 300 tonnes weight to monitor identity, location, speed and course

 

[nitesh]

Navy, Coast Guard rescue 100 illegal Bangladeshi migrants

Navy, Coast Guard rescue 100 illegal Bangladeshi migrants
December 28th, 2008 - 9:04 pm ICT by IANS -

New Delhi, Dec 28 (IANS) Donning a humanitarian role, the Indian Navy and Coast Guard have rescued about 100 Bangaldeshis, who were illegally taken to Thailand for fishing, and were drifting in the Indian Ocean for 12 days, an official here said Sunday.The Bangladeshis, rescued off the Andaman and Nicobar islands, were being interrogated at the Little Andaman Island.

“These boys, 412 in number, from Cox Bazaar in Bangladesh were hired by a local person for fishing in Thai waters. However, as soon as they arrived, they were caught by the Thai police,” a defence official of the Integrated Defence Command in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands told IANS by telephone.

“They said the Thai police put them on a pontoon tied to a ship to deport them back. But these boys quietly opened the cable and the pontoon started drifting.

“One of the survivors reached the Little Andaman Island. Following this, the army, navy, air force and Coast Guard in consultation with the local police launched an aerial reccee and patrolling to locate the rest of them,” the officer said.

During patrols a boat, with 88 people onboard, was found 40 nautical miles away from the Little Andaman Island. A dozen others were also rescued.

“The Indian Navy and Coast Guard rescued the survivors in a joint operations. The rescued people are being questioned if there is a pattern in their trafficking,” the official added.

 

[nitesh]

Vice-admiral Dhowan new NDA commandant-Pune-Cities-The Times of India

Vice-admiral Dhowan new NDA commandant
1 Jan 2009, 0425 hrs IST, TNN


PUNE: Vice-Admiral R K Dhowan, previously chief of staff of the Eastern Naval Command, has taken over as the new commandant of the National Defence Academy (NDA). The previous incumbent, Air Marshal T S Randhawa, handed over command to Dhowan on Wednesday.

Dhowan is a passout of the 45th course of the NDA and also the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington, Tamil Nadu.

The vice-admiral has held various important staff appointments at the naval headquarters, including deputy director, naval operations, joint director, naval plans, as also assistant chief of the naval staff (policy and plans) at the integrated headquarters, union ministry of defence.

He has undergone various courses in India and abroad, including the Sea Harrier direction course at Yeovilton, UK and the naval command course at the Naval War College, Rhode Island, the US.

Ships commanded by Dhowan include INS Khukri, a missile corvette, INS Ranjit, a Kashin' class destroyer, and the missile destroyer INS Delhi.

He also served as the Indian naval adviser at the Indian high commission in London from March 2000 to 2003 and as chief staff officer (operations) at the Western Naval Command headquarters in Mumbai from January 2004 to July 2005.

Dhowan also commanded the Eastern Fleet as the flag officer commanding. Subsequently, he took over as chief of staff at Eastern Naval Command headquarters in Visakhapatnam.

 

[nitesh]

India Today - India's most widely read magazine.

President Patil to tour submarine
Sandeep Unnithan
New Delhi, January 2, 2009

President Pratibha Patil will get her maiden guided tour inside an Indian naval submarine on Saturday during an official visit to the naval base at Visakhapatnam.

The submarine being readied for the supreme commander's visit is the INS Sindhudhvaj, one of the navy's fleet of 10-kilo-class submarines. The Sindhudhvaj was recently refitted in a Russian shipyard and equipped to fire anti-ship missiles. However, unlike the president sea sojourn two years ago, President Patil will not be sailing out into the Bay of Bengal.

The president will also be given a guided tour of a classified naval facility, the School of Advanced Undersea Warfare (SAUW) and shown around the submarine simulators. Commissioned at the INS Satavahana in 2007, crews of India's planned fleet of nuclear submarines - the under-construction Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) and the Akula-2 class SSN - are trained on the simulators at the SAUW.

The president's itinerary does not include a visit to the first hull of the ATV, under construction at a classified ship-building facility. The hull of the 6,000-tonne submarine was to have been launched into the water on January 26 this year, but is now believed to have been postponed to mid-2009. This is the latest in the series of delays in the indigenous programme which began in the early 1970s.

 

[nitesh]

The Hindu News Update Service

PM to commission Ezhimala Naval Academy on Jan 8

Ezhimala (PTI): Ezhimala Naval Academy, a project to conduct a host of training courses including research, will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on January 8, Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta said on Friday.

"After deciding to set up a full-fledged naval academy at this site, we have come to a stage wherein we are ready to commence training at the academy and the Prime Minister will dedicate the academy to the nation on January 8," he told a press conference here.

The over Rs 720 crore project, billed as Asia's largest is capable of accommodating 750 personnel and about 500 support staff to assist the day-to-day activities of academy.

Flanked by the Arabian Sea, picturesque hills and inland waters, the Academy spread over a 2,452 acres, will be the only centre in India imparting four-year B Tech courses in Electronics and Communications, and Mechanical Engineering for all the newly inducted trainee officers.

The syllabi and the curricula have been drafted keeping in mind the current technical advancements and the skill tests that will be required in handling the future acquisition of the Indian Navy, he said.

"The academy would give a lot more thrust on intellectual works and will have a unique laboratory and plans to allow others to do research works here," Admiral Mehta said.

The ongoing works of the project are scheduled to be completed by April end and the full-fledged courses will start in June next, he said.

The entire training sessions, currently being held at Goa's 'INS Mandovi', would be subsequently shifted to the 'INS Zamorin' at Ezhimala, which is located in Kerala's Kannur district.

 

[nitesh]

The deal is signed guys

India inks largest-ever defence deal with US-India-The Times of India

India inks largest-ever defence deal with US
5 Jan 2009, 0055 hrs IST, Rajat Pandit, TNN


NEW DELHI: The UPA government has quietly gone ahead and signed the biggest-ever defence deal with US: a $2.1 billion contract for eight Boeing P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance (LRMR) aircraft for Navy.

TOI had reported on December 27 that the huge deal was finally on the verge of being inked after protracted negotiations and clearance from the Cabinet Committee on Security.

The actual signing took place on January 1, with defence ministry's joint secretary and acquisitions manager (maritime systems) Preeti Sudan and Boeing integrated defence systems vice-president and country head Vivek Lall signing the contract, sources said.

But, strangely enough, the defence ministry is keeping the deal under wraps. Incidentally, the previous NDA regime had also signed a flurry of mega defence deals -- like the $1.5 billion one for Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov and $1.1 billion one for three Israeli ‘Phalcon' AWACS (airborne warning and control systems) -- in the run-up to the April-May 2004 general elections.

Sources said the P-8I contract was "a direct commercial agreement with Boeing", with "some issues of end-use verification yet to be fully sorted out" with the US government.

As reported earlier, India and US are negotiating the End-Use Verification Agreement (EUVA) and the Communication Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA), which are required under American laws to ensure compliance with sensitive technology control requirements.

The two pacts are required since India is now increasingly turning to US to buy military hardware and software. Though India does not have problems with safeguards, it does not want them to be "intrusive".

In terms of the contract size, the P-8I deal supplants the $962 million deal signed with US in 2007 for six C-130J `Super Hercules' aircraft for Indian special forces.

India will get the first P-8I towards end-2012 or early-2013, with the other seven following in a phased manner by 2015-2016. The contract also provides an option for India to order four to eight more such planes.

Armed with torpedoes, depth bombs and Harpoon anti-ship missiles, the P-8I will also be capable of anti-submarine warfare and anti-surface warfare. They will replace the eight ageing and fuel-guzzling Russian Tupolev-142M turboprops currently being operated by Navy.

The P-8I planes will help in plugging the existing voids in Navy's maritime snooping capabilities, having as they will an operating range of over 600 nautical miles, with `5.5 hours on station'.

Customised for India and based on the Boeing 737 commercial airliner, the P-8I will actually be a variant of the P-8A Poseidon multi-mission maritime aircraft currently being developed for US Navy, which has ordered 108 of them to replace its P-3C Orion fleet. India, of course, remains unhappy over the US decision to sell more P-3C Orions, armed with Harpoon missiles, to Pakistan.

At present, the Navy uses the TU-142Ms, IL-38SDs and Dorniers for surveillance operations in the Indian Ocean region. It is also now in the hunt for six advanced medium-range maritime reconnaissance planes, for around Rs 1,600 crore, to further boost its snooping capabilities.

For innermost layer surveillance, up to 200 nautical miles, Navy is going in for two more Israeli Heron UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), with three ground control stations and two ship control stations, for Rs 386 crore after successfully deploying eight Searcher-II and four Heron UAVs. There is also the Rs 1,163 crore joint Indo-Israeli project for developing rotary-wing UAVs for use from warships.

 

[nitesh]

Indo-Russian wargames in Arabian Sea to boost military ties

Indo-Russian wargames in Arabian Sea to boost military ties

Moscow, Jan 11: India and Russia are set to deepen their military ties with wargames planed in the Arabian Sea that will include nuclear-powered warships later this month, a top defence official said on Sunday.

Six Russian warships led by nuclear-powered missile cruiser "Pyotr Veliky" (Peter-the-Great) will conduct wargames with the Indian Navy in the Arabian Sea later this month, Chief of General Staff, Army-General Nikolai Makarov said.

"The joint Russia-India exercise 'Indra-2009' will be carried out in January end. From the Russian side six ships including Northern Fleet's nuclear powered heavy missile cruiser, will take part in the wargames," Makarov said.

According to earlier reports, "Pyotr Veliky" known as 'buster of aircraft carriers' will be joined by the powerful anti-submarine squadron of the Russian Pacific Fleet for the joint Indo-Russian war games.

Bureau Report