June-July l 2010 Volume 5 No 3 rs 100.00 (india-based buyer only) SP’s AN SP GUIDE PUBLICATION www.spsnavalforces.net ROUNDUP 3 PAGe STOP PRESS A Global Concern NAvAL vARIANT OF LCA ROLLS OUT India, in cooperation with its allies and friends The country’s first naval variant of Light Combat Aircraft, the LCA (Navy) Trainer around the world, will have to work to ensure Naval Project (NP)–1 was rolled out by the Defence Minister A.K. Antony from HAL that lawful private and public activities in the Aircraft Research and Design Centre at a glittering function in Bengaluru on July 6, maritime domain are protected against attack 2010. The Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Nirmal Verma, Secretary Defence Production by hostile exploitations R.K. Singh, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, Dr. V.K. Saraswat, HAL Chair - man Ashok Nayak, Director Aeronautical Development Agency P.S. Subramanyam Cdr Sandeep Dewan were present on the occasion. The Defence Minister described the development as a ‘defining and memorable event’ for the nation. PAGe 4 Around the Sea A report on Commander Dilip Donde’s TeTe-e-TeTe successful completion of the first solo circumnavigation by an Indian Rear Admiral (Retd) Sushil Ramsay ‘Cooperation and interaction in the PAGe 6 Stealthy Ships maritime domain will continue to be an important aspect of IN’s vision’ PhotograPh: abhishek / sP guide Pubns Chief of Naval Staff Admi - ral Nirmal Verma , in an interaction with SP’s Naval The scope of accessing technologies from Forces , throws light on the the western world, so far denied to India, is security measures to deal witnessing an upward swing with the growing incidents Rear Admiral (Retd) Sushil Ramsay of piracy. Browse through PAGe 8 the second instalment of Mine Warfare the interview to know his Once the nuances of conventional mine vision on empowering IN warfare and countermine warfare are understood, it would be possible to with suitable capabilities. extrapolate the scenarios and arrive at some likely threats from the sea mine when used as a weapon for terror SP Guide Publications (SP’s): Despite well-coordi - nated surveillance and vigil by various navies, in - cluding the Indian Navy (IN), incidents of piracy off the coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden have continued unabated. What in your view should be the security construct to deal with this kind of menace? Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS) : Piracy off the coast of Somalia has grown steadily over the years and has now assumed very seri - ous proportions. The number of piracy in - cidents reported so far in 2009 has surpassed the total reported in 2008. As per the IMB annual piracy report of 2009, Commodore (Retd) C.P. Srivastava the number of attacks reported in 2009 around Somalia, Seychelles and off the PAGe 10 Oman coast is over 200. Of these, 47 re - Commanders’ Meet sulted in hijacking of vessels. Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Nirmal Verma To protect Indian flagged ships and In - presided over the Navy Commanders’ dian citizens employed in seafaring duties, the Indian Navy commenced anti-piracy pa - Conference in New Delhi recently trols in the Gulf of Aden from October 23, Rear Admiral (Retd) Sushil Ramsay 2009. A total of 17 IN ships have been de - ployed there since October 2008. Each de - PLUS ployment has been for a period of 35-40 days. In addition to escorting Indian flag Interview with Loic Piedevache 11 ships, ships of other flags have also been Country Head, MBDA Group escorted. Merchant ships, irrespective of Tech Watch 13 their flag, are currently being escorted First 14 along the entire length of 490 nm long and 3/2010 1 TeTe-e-TeTe L Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Nirmal Verma, in an With terrorism raising its ugly head, mar - report with some interesting images of Com - interaction with SP’s naval Forces , threw light itime domain’s awareness is of primary impor - mander Dilip Donde’s solo circumnavigation in A on the Indian Navy’s role in nation-building. This tance. An article on the subject has been 277 days on Indian Naval Sailing Vessel Mhadei, issue of SP’s naval Forces starts with Admiral included where the author brings out the chal - and the usual News Digest. I Verma touching upon a number of subjects in - lenges faced by the naval forces as well as the The new look and feel of the magazine cluding anti-piracy measures, Indian Ocean coast guard, resources required and suggests reflects our endeavour to keep up with the Naval Symposium 2010 held at Abu Dhabi with an organisation which can provide foolproof dyanamics of the market. Hope our valuable R the theme, “Together, for the reinforcement of the maritime domain awareness. readers will appreciate this effort. maritime security in the Indian Ocean,” network- India got its indigenous stealth frigate INS O centric operations, etc. Shivalik , which was commissioned by Defence The article is on mine warfare where the au - Minister A.K. Antony at Naval Dockyard, Mumbai T thor traces the evolution of naval mine warfare, in April. Under Project 17/17A, the Indian Navy its technology and employment in less than war is likely to acquire a total of 10 stealth frigates. It I situations, thereby having a direct impact on was thus appropriate to include an insight into coastal defence and homeland security. The stealth technology and what is involved in the D other affected areas could be ports, channels, construction of a stealth ship. offshore assets, riverine and inland waterways, And then, there is a write-up on the Navy Jayant Baranwa L E among others. Commander’s Conference held during May, a Publisher & Editor-in-Chief PhotograPhs: indian Navy / Pib Interview with CNS continued objectives and to build bridges of friendship. The constabulary role would range from low 20 nm wide internationally recommended intensity maritime operation to maintaining transit corridor that has been promulgated good order at sea. These include aspects of for use by all merchant vessels. This coastal security in coordination with other arrangement has been working satisfactorily agencies of the government. Our benign role and 834 ships (111 Indian flagged and 723 includes tasks such as humanitarian aid, dis - foreign flagged from 47 different countries) aster relief, search and rescue, etc. have been escorted by IN Ships in the Gulf of Aden since October 2008. Navies at sea SP’s: What are the maritime security imperatives for are only dealing with the symptoms of mis - India in the context of the emerging maritime prowess governance in Somalia. Stability and effec - of China with its expanding reach into the IOR? tive governance in Somalia are required in CNS: China and India both have legitimate order to control piracy at sea off the coast interests in ensuring the safety of the SLOC of Somalia. in any part of the oceans, as necessary, in - cluding the Indian Ocean, as most of their SP’s: Network-centric operations have acquired energy needs necessarily have to transit the global prominence. What is your vision on empower - Indian Ocean. We have sought to build a co - ing IN with suitable capabilities in this emerging field operative construct and over the past few of force multipliers? years, interactions between the People’s Lib - CNS : Network-centric operations enable eration Army (Navy) and the Indian Navy sharing information on real-time basis be - have reflected this change. In 2008, Admiral tween widely dispersed forces and diverse Wu Sheng Li, the PLA (Navy) Chief visited platforms, in order to enhance battlefield India that was reciprocated by a return visit transparency. Typically, a networked envi - by Admiral Sureesh Mehta in 2009. Our ronment comprises three grids. The first is ships took part in the International Fleet Re - the sensor grid that collates information view at Qingdao in 2009. PLA (Navy) ships from multiple sensors and helps generate a have visited Kochi. Recently, Indian naval common operational picture and therefore officers from the Naval Higher Command shared awareness of the battlespace. The Course visited China on a study tour. The second, namely information grid, IN is structured to have capabilities that enables exchange or dissemination of infor - seek to serve our national maritime inter - mation such as operational status, informa - ests in a complex environment. tion for logistics, and personnel management. The third grid is the weapon SP’s: Over the years, the IN has very successfully grid, which enables integration of multiple engaged in CBM with the navies of Southeast Asia weapon systems in a force so as to optimise and has earned professional respect within the ordnance delivery on selected targets. region. What is your perspective of further These three grids together provide the consolidation and augment mutual cooperation and foundation for efficient and effective mar - understanding? itime operations. CNS: Our interactions with the navies of The IN has already developed these ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian grids through in-house efforts. These are Nations) countries have led to immense being periodically upgraded through soft - mutual benefits over the years. The inter - ware and hardware modifications by har - actions began with the Republic of Singa - nessing technological changes. The vision pore Navy and later expanded to include all of the Navy is to have net-centric capabili - other Southeast Asian navies. With some of ties for all our platforms in the shortest the navies we have coordinated patrols timeframe. Suitable projects have been for - every year. We also host Milan—a gathering mulated to achieve this capability. ‘Cooperation and interaction of navies in the Andaman and Nicobar Is - lands once every two years.