The Indian Navy Navis in Mari Amissa: At a Crossroads in the Twenty-first Century
| Published date | 01 December 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/23477970231207686 |
| Author | Ashutosh Singh |
| Date | 01 December 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Research Articles |
Research Article
The Indian Navy Navis
in Mari Amissa: At a
Crossroads in the
Twenty-first Century
Ashutosh Singh1
Abstract
This article hypothesises that the Indian Navy’s modernisation is directionless, the
Latin phrase ‘Quod perierat navis’ meaning ‘a lost ship’ metaphorically representing
the Indian Navy. While China’s naval expansion is set to revive great power naval
brinkmanship in the twenty-first century, India’s naval modernisation appears
rudderless without a critical appraisal of new challenges and countermeasures.
This article hypothesises that this stems from the lack of an objective maritime
doctrine resulting in a confused capability acquisition programme. The article
puts forward three questions: First, is there a military strategy or white paper
on India’s maritime threats and strengths? Second, is the Indian Navy bolstering
its marine defences? Third, how might limited resources optimise capacities to
meet challenges? To evaluate Indian Navy modernisation, this article will employ a
qualitative method to explore the strategic objectives and utilisation of emerging
naval technologies by the Indian Navy and its prospective rivals, and conclude by
proposing suitable course corrections.
Keywords
Indian Navy, modernisation, doctrine, twenty-first century
Introduction
Historically, India has always been a continental or land power, justifiably so,
since the threats to any established power in the Indian sub-continent in recorded
history ever since Alexander has come over land. Not until the arrival of the
Journal of Asian Security
and International Affairs
10(3) 342–363, 2023
© The Author(s) 2023
Article reuse guidelines:
in.sagepub.com/journals-permissions-india
DOI: 10.1177/23477970231207686
journals.sagepub.com/home/aia
1
Amity School of Liberal Arts, Amity University Rajasthan, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
Corresponding author:
Ashutosh Singh, Amity School of Liberal Arts, Amity University Rajasthan, Jaipur, Rajasthan 303002,
India.
E-mail: ashusingh84@gmail.com
Singh 343
Portuguese in the fifteenth century, did India face a real politico-military threat in
the maritime dimension. However, by then for too long Indian naval technology
and ship building lagged behind Europe which was undergoing a scientific
and cultural reawakening. After the British consolidated their hold over the
geographical frontiers of the Indian sub-continent by the mid-nineteenth century,
they too oriented their Indian defence strategy for a landward defence from a
northern threat. With Britain having complete supremacy at sea, India’s seaward
flank did not have any real threat. While naval power was not considered important
for India’s defence in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, India was used
for projecting sea power farther east to China and Southeast Asia (Matzke, 2011).
The end of British rule in 1947 saw the start of an era of decolonisation and also
ended India’s role of a maritime springboard to the east.
The Indian experience after independence further helped in buttressing the
perception of the navy’s role as marginal in the scheme of Indian military thinking.
The wars in 1948, 1962 and 1965 were all essentially land based affairs with
airpower playing a supporting role in all but 1962 when airpower was not
employed (Sinha & Mohta, 2007). It is notable that in 1962 when the army was
left alone, the result was an unmitigated disaster (Thomas, 2016). This is in no
way to suggest that the absence of airpower alone was the cause of the 1962
debacle, but it was a costly lesson underscoring the significance of joint-operations
and the necessary theoretical doctrines for their implementation.
This article specifically proposes that the Indian Navy follows what I would
characterise as a Defensive-Carrier Battle Doctrine—which uses its limited
aviation assets to essentially provide air defence to the CBG and extend the range
of the ships’ firepower. This warfighting doctrine operates on the assumption that
battle group will not have to independently engage large numbers of land-based
strike aircraft and that sufficient anti-submarine warfare (ASW) assets will be
available at hand to allow the task force to operate in the high seas. The on-board
aviation assets are not adequate to deliver a large strike against significantly large
naval task forces especially if they are equipped with modern air-defence systems.
For the anti-surface warfare (ASuW) mission, this naval task force mostly relies
on the on-board anti-ship missiles of its surface combatants.
This doctrine while not clearly defined in the officially published, ‛Indian
Maritime Doctrine’ by the Indian Navy seems to have evolved over the wartime
experiences of post-independent India. The Defensive-Carrier Battle Doctrine
may seem doctrinally similar to the Soviet philosophy towards their carriers
which were intended from the very outset to play a supporting role in the naval
forces. However, the Indian doctrine seems to have evolved in the absence of any
clear thought about its efficacy in warfare. The other naval warfare aspects
specifically, underwater and other means of sea denial have been neglected in
favour of investment of resources on development of carrier-centric surface
forces.
This article further goes on to argue that the nature of the maritime environment
in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) has fundamentally changed since the mid-
1990s. There has been a marked decentralisation of naval power, catalysed by
information-centric warfare, a proliferation of long-range anti-ship cruise missiles
Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI
Get Started for FreeUnlock full access with a free 7-day trial
Transform your legal research with vLex
-
Complete access to the largest collection of common law case law on one platform
-
Generate AI case summaries that instantly highlight key legal issues
-
Advanced search capabilities with precise filtering and sorting options
-
Comprehensive legal content with documents across 100+ jurisdictions
-
Trusted by 2 million professionals including top global firms
-
Access AI-Powered Research with Vincent AI: Natural language queries with verified citations
Unlock full access with a free 7-day trial
Transform your legal research with vLex
-
Complete access to the largest collection of common law case law on one platform
-
Generate AI case summaries that instantly highlight key legal issues
-
Advanced search capabilities with precise filtering and sorting options
-
Comprehensive legal content with documents across 100+ jurisdictions
-
Trusted by 2 million professionals including top global firms
-
Access AI-Powered Research with Vincent AI: Natural language queries with verified citations
Unlock full access with a free 7-day trial
Transform your legal research with vLex
-
Complete access to the largest collection of common law case law on one platform
-
Generate AI case summaries that instantly highlight key legal issues
-
Advanced search capabilities with precise filtering and sorting options
-
Comprehensive legal content with documents across 100+ jurisdictions
-
Trusted by 2 million professionals including top global firms
-
Access AI-Powered Research with Vincent AI: Natural language queries with verified citations
Unlock full access with a free 7-day trial
Transform your legal research with vLex
-
Complete access to the largest collection of common law case law on one platform
-
Generate AI case summaries that instantly highlight key legal issues
-
Advanced search capabilities with precise filtering and sorting options
-
Comprehensive legal content with documents across 100+ jurisdictions
-
Trusted by 2 million professionals including top global firms
-
Access AI-Powered Research with Vincent AI: Natural language queries with verified citations
Unlock full access with a free 7-day trial
Transform your legal research with vLex
-
Complete access to the largest collection of common law case law on one platform
-
Generate AI case summaries that instantly highlight key legal issues
-
Advanced search capabilities with precise filtering and sorting options
-
Comprehensive legal content with documents across 100+ jurisdictions
-
Trusted by 2 million professionals including top global firms
-
Access AI-Powered Research with Vincent AI: Natural language queries with verified citations