Strategically-important A&N Command to get a boost

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Strategically-important A&N Command to get a boost - India - The Times of India


PORT BLAIR: India is finally cranking up force-levels and infrastructure at the strategically-located Andaman and Nicobar Islands
, the country's last military outpost, to counter China's strategic moves in the Indian Ocean Region as well as deter terrorists, drug-traffickers and pirates from setting up bases in the largely-uninhabited 572-island cluster.

Moreover, the move will also help protect roughly 30% of India's 2.01 million sq km of Exclusive Economic Zone spread in the region, apart from ensuring better security of the sea lanes converging towards Malacca
Strait, a major shipping route with around 70,000 ships sailing through every year, transporting around 30% of the world trade in goods.

For one, India plans to deploy more warships at the country's only tri-Service `theatre' Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC). For another, it's slowly activating and upgrading additional airfields in the archipelago. Moreover, ANC will eventually ramp up its existing 108 Mountain Brigade (with around 3,000 soldiers) to a division-level force of around 15,000 troops.

"The very fact that we have ANC is to ensure sovereignty of these islands. There are proper plans in place between the armed forces and civil administration,'' said Navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma on Friday.

Apart from recently inducting a large amphibious warship, the 5,655-tonne INS Kesari, Admiral Verma said ANC would get the offshore patrol vessels being built at the Goa Shipyard.

Moreover, the 1,000-metre airfield at Shibpur in the northernmost region of Andamans is being upgraded to include night-landing facilities also. This will be the third naval airfield after Port Blair and Campbell Bay, while IAF operates the Car Nicobar airbase. The helipads at Kamorta and Little Andaman will also be eventually expanded to include airstrips for fixed-wing aircraft.

ANC, which came up in 2001 after the Groups of Ministers' report on "reforming the national security system'', is unique since it includes Army, Navy and IAF under one operational commander in a unified structure.

But, with the services engaged in turf-wars and not willing to spare their "assets'' for ANC, the command has not become as effective as it could have become. It is still making do with just one infantry brigade, around 15 small warships and just a handful of Dornier-228 maritime patrol aircraft, Mi-8 and Chetak helicopters.

Frontline fighters like the Sukhoi-30MKIs and Jaguars have operated from the Carnic airbase to send a strategic signal across the Bay of Bengal but are not permanently based there. Given the strategic importance of the archipelago, which is a good 1,200-km away from India's east coast, it's probably time that ANC got a separate budget distinct from the three services.

 

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


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.

 

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India to plug gaps in defence preparedness in A&N

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Port Blair, Feb 8 (PTI) In view of the Chinese presence in Myanmar's Coco Islands, just 40 km from the Andaman and Nicobar, and its increasing military activity in the Indian Ocean, India is planning to plug gaps in the islands' security with possible induction of Sukhois, more warships and radars.

"There are gaps in surveillance, air defence and coastal security. We are working towards plugging the gaps," a senior officer in the tri-services Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC) comprising Army, Navy and Air Force units said here today.

"The Chinese have a presence in Coco Islands, which is just 40 km of Landfall Islands in the northern most part of Andaman. Earlier it used to be large, but now they have scaled down the presence. But, yes, they are there," the officer said on condition of anonymity.