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In the four-day biannual meet to be addressed
by Defence Minister A.K. Antony May 25, the commanders
of important operational formations, led by Navy
chief Admiral Nirmal Verma, will also assess the
preparedness of naval combatants, in particular
the organisational ability to deploy warships,
submarines and aviation assets at short notice,
both for conventional and peacetime missions.
"The naval commanders conference for 2011
started at New Delhi today (Tuesday). Over the
next four days, the commanders of the Indian Navy
will discuss issues of operational relevance and
future plans," a navy spokesperson said here
in a press release.
"This biannual forum also provides an opportunity
for the Chief of the Naval Staff to examine the
operational readiness of the Indian Navy; assess
the progress made in key projects; and initiate
functional, organisational and administrative
steps necessary to further enhance the Indian
Navy's readiness for current and emerging challenges,"
he said.
Addressing the naval commanders on the subject
of operational readiness, Admiral Verma pointed
out that "with the security situation being
fluid, we need to maintain the organisational
ability to deploy ships, submarines and aircraft
at immediate notice".
Drawing the commanders' attention to "large
number of peacetime commitments at hand",
he also noted that "maintenance of war-fighting
abilities remained the top-most priority".
Following the November 2008 Mumbai terror strikes,
the navy has been given overall responsibility
of securing the 7,500-km-long Indian coastline
and vital installations from non-conventional
threats such as terrorist attacks.
The navy has effectively put in place a mechanism
for coordination among all Indian maritime agencies
such as the Coast Guard, customs, marine police,
shipping, ports and fisheries. It has also set
up joint operations centres on both the eastern
and western fronts for coordinated intelligence
gathering, sharing and analysis, apart from carrying
out combined operations on those inputs.
It has also raised a 1,000-man strong Sagar Prahari
Bal, a specialist force for providing security
to vital military and strategic installations
along the coast.
Regarding the threat from pirates in the Arabian
Sea, Verma said the ongoing thrust on anti-piracy
operations should be sustained. Apart from destroying
about half a dozen motherships of the pirates,
the navy has in recent months nabbed about 120
sea brigands and sent them to jail in Mumbai.
Verma highlighted the criticality of "maritime
domain awareness" to all aspects of naval
operations and recalled the "the vision and
contribution" of the Indian Navy in the National
Command, Control, Communication and Intelligence
Network (NC3I).
The conference will review all aspects of operational,
material and logistics preparedness of the navy,
apart from discussing the force-level accretion
in accordance with the navy's long term perspective
plans and how best to leverage the new defence
procurement procedure to build ships within India
over the next 15 years at a faster pace with international
benchmarks of costs and quality.
The meeting would also discuss the plans for
induction of its main combatants such as the Gorshkov
aircraft carrier by December 2012, integration
of MiG-29K fighter jets on board the carrier,
P8I maritime reconnaissance aircraft, indigenous
aircraft carriers, and Scorpene submarines and
its follow-on orders.
(IANS)
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