From the Magazine: Indian Navy growing in size and reach

India lives in the shadow of the world’s largest navy in terms of ship numbers, with China possessing three times India’s vessels. Growing competition with an increasingly assertive China is driving the Indian Navy to acquire additional warships, submarines, and aircraft, as well as invest in technology and infrastructure, and deploy warships around the world. The Indian Navy aims to have a fully indigenously equipped navy by 2047 and over the next year will receive a dozen new warships – some 50 are in various stages of construction, with all but two being built at Indian shipyards. Presently, the Indian Navy has about 130 medium to large vessels in service and aims to grow this to 155-160 by 2030 and 170-175 by 2035, providing sufficient strength to secure both sea flanks in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. In spite of schedule and budget overruns by local shipyards, successive commissioning of locally built vessels is a sign of India’s growing military industrial base and a shift away from foreign dependency. At any time there are at least half a dozen Chinese warships in the Indian Ocean along with a large number of fishing vessels and research ships, requiring constant surveillance. To meet Chinese ambitions, India’s Navy is investing substantially in anti-submarine warfare (ASW) vessels, maritime patrol aircraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and upgrading facilities in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as well as the Lakshadweep archipelago. A new naval base (INS Varsha) i s being developed for the Arihant class submarines while existing facilities are being upgraded. Expansion is to not only counter China and Pakistan but respond to other threats such as piracy, smuggling, and natural disasters. This is an excerpt from APDR. To read the full article, click here. For Editorial Inquiries Contact: Editor Kym Bergmann at [email protected] For Advertising Inquiries Contact: Group Sales Director Simon Hadfield at [email protected]