- Despite geopolitical and geostrategic scenarios undergoing tremendous changes over the last few years, the global community’s keenness in strengthening their respective countries with adequate military inventories of all hues is considered par for the course measure. None of the countries would like to feel inadequate while presenting themselves to ensure that sovereignty is not compromised one bit. As technology-driven warfare advances at a faster clip, every country worth its salt wishes to not stay behind even as procuring and/or producing military hardware is known to be exorbitantly expensive. No wonder, very few developed countries boast of a robust defense industry capable of supplying arms, ammunition, and equipment to those seeking assistance.
PC: Kartik Sud
- As you are aware, the Indian military is largely comprised of varied inventory from Russia followed by other countries. The ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict has severely exposed this underbelly which could potentially compromise our military operation preparedness. Of course, the emphasis laid on indigenous defense equipment production has not yielded the desired results yet despite assurances from the sector. As such, our continued reliance on importing military inventories hasn’t subsided. And we have two enemies from across the eastern and western borders breathing down our neck. As reported, the Navy has ordered 68 warships and vessels, which is appropriate. But it is not enough since China is scaling up its inventory at an alarming rate.
- Currently, India’s Navy has 132 warships with 143 aircraft and 130 helicopters. The aim is to have a minimum of 175 warships by 2035. China already has the world’s largest Navy with 355 warships and submarines. This is projected to grow to 555 in another five to six years. Thus, to meet India’s growing strategic maritime needs, the pace of naval modernization needs to be significantly quickened. By 2030, China is likely to operate at least one aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean Region. For a credible blue-water Navy with significant strike capability, India needs to resolve issues on three fronts: production, indigenization, and operations. On production, it is widely accepted that India’s pace of construction of warships is much slower than required.
PC: Screengrab
- While China builds around 14 warships a year, India manages only four. Yes, the pace of construction has picked up, thanks to new infrastructure in shipyards, bolstered supply lines, and even some amount of AI being applied to the production process. But progressive decommissioning of older ships means we are always falling behind. Note that Asia is a seascape and much of India’s strategic posturing will span the entire length of the Indo-Pacific from Africa to the western Pacific, we need Navy-led joint theatre commands. But the theorization process has been excruciatingly slow, perhaps caught in inter-services rivalry. We need a big political push for this to create and encourage a cutting-edge indigenous Indian defence-industrial complex.
