|
Ahead of the Navy Day on Dec 4, Adm Verma told
an annual press conference here that by 2027,
the Indian Navy will be having "over 150
ships and close to 500 aircraft and helicopters".
"Today, Indian Navy is poised for a very
good growth path. Navy veterans could not have
imagined the growth curve that we have today,"
he said.
Referring to the two new tankers that Indian
Navy has inducted this year for deployment on
the Eastern and Western sea boards, Adm Verma
said India now has the capability to operate two
task forces on the either side of India's coast
simultaneously.
"The two tankers inducted are going to provide
us long legs. Two tankers on either coast will
make it possible to operate two task forces at
greater distances for longer periods," he
said.
"When I say long legs, we can translate
it into two distinct methods of deployment --
deployment at long distances and deployment at
long distances along with ability to stay there
for sometime. We are talking about reach and sustainability,"
he said.
India also plans to induct the INS Vikramaditya
(erstwhile Admiral Gorshkov) aircraft carrier
from Russia by this year end, apart from inducting
nine other major surface warships such as one
Shivalik class frigate, another Kolkata class
destroyer, an anti-submarine warfare corvette,
an offshore patrol vessel, two follow-on Talwar
class frigates from Russia, apart from three catamaran
survey vessels and 25 fast interceptor craft.
With regard to the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier
(IAC) being built at Cochin Shipyard, Adm Verma
said it was "a setback of sorts" that
it could not be launched into the waters this
month as originally planned due to delays in procurement
of critical equipment that needed to be integrated
on the ship before hitting the waters.
"Hopefully by middle of next year or so
(we should launch the IAC), that's my assessment
and hope," he added.
Despite the navy set for growth over the next
15 years, Adm Verma said its primary focus and
area of responsibility will be to defend the Indian
Ocean, and to deploy more ships at sea to respond
to emergent situations far away from the main
land, such as a pirate attack or escorting cargo
ships with Indian interests in pirate-infested
waters.
On the delays in the follow-on conventional submarines
project codenamed P75I, Adm Verma said since this
was navy's last opportunity to build its own design
capabilities in terms of stealth and other technologies,
it was taking time to define what it wants to
achieve for indigenous capabilities from the project.
He also said the navy did not want to end up
in a single vendor situation for P75I, thereby
forcing it to "redo" the tendering that
would put back the procurement plans by several
more years.
"We have to be very clear as to what we
are asking for, as we don't want to land up in
a situation where we have to redo the process,
like it happened in some cases and defence programmes,"
he said.
The navy, Adm Verma said, has on order 49 ships
and submarines of which 45 are from Indian shipyards.
He also noted that the navy was planning to set
up an amphibious warfare training complex at Kakinada
on the Andhra Pradesh coast to raise troops that
can wage war by landing on enemy shores.
(IANS)
|
