• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Indian Navy key target of US pressure

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New Delhi, July 06, IRNA
India-US-Navy
The United States has turned up the pressure on India to join the Proliferation Security Initiative with the Indian Navy, which has been virtually crippled by US sanctions after the 1998 nuclear tests, and now being singled out by Washington as a valuable partner to take this forward.

The Navy War Room leak, where the story is still unfolding, has led senior naval officers to point fingers at the US for "coming at us from all directions" to bring the Indian Navy on board with its plans for the entire region, said a report published here today in the leading Indian English daily `Asian Age'.

Washington, the sources said, is working overtime to bring the Indian Navy on board its two-year-old initiative, with even the now regular Malabar series of exercises between the two navies being PSI- directed. This, in essence, is aimed at containing the transportation of weapons of mass destruction and related items over the seas, giving the participating countries the authority to board and search ships on the high seas without warning.

The US has authored a telling phrase: the Indian Navy leaves no footprints in the country as all dealings with it are offshore, away from the public eye.

The growing cooperation between Washington and the Indian Navy has followed this initiative to the letter, with the US clear that the Indian Navy had to be brought on board to give vibrancy and credibility to the PSI.

As a defence expert put it, the Indian Navy is now fast evolving as the nation's "wild card" and by 2015 will be a hi-tech force with around 140 vessels.

It is at present the only carrier-capable navy in the region, with even China falling short on this front.

The US is keen on the Indian Navy playing an extended role in the Indian Ocean region to curb growing piracy and to neutralize what it has projected as "terrorist threats."

The Indian Navy created some apprehension in the region by agreeing to jointly patrol the Malacca Straits with the US fleet.

It provided escort service to US vessels passing through the Malacca Straits for an entire year from September 2001 despite the fact that the decision did not go down well with China, which is particularly possessive of these waters.

India's participation is high on the US agenda, with sources pointing out that the PSI will be "irrelevant" without the Indian Navy, which has been pinpointed by the Pentagon as a "credible partner" for the US in its search for weapons of mass destruction on the high seas.

Two bills that have just gone through the foreign affairs committees of the two houses of the US Congress lay special stress on the need for the US to draw India into the PSI as early as possible.

An indication of the American interest in expanding the reach of the Indian Navy is evident from the fact that the US has been willing to train Indian pilots for Russian fighter planes.

Thirty-two Indian Navy pilots have been trained at the US Navy's training command at Pensacola, Florida, to operate the Russian MiG-29K fighters aboard the Russian-built aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya (formerly the Admiral Gorshkov).

The Pentagon not only raised no objections, it in fact has encouraged expansion of the Indian Navy, of course keeping US defence companies very much in the picture.

Significantly, with the PSI in mind, the US will now be supplying six second hand Sikorsky UH 3H Sea King Helicopters at a cost of Rs 300 crores. This despite the fact that the Navy's entire fleet of Sea King MK 42s was grounded for want of spares even after sanctions were lifted in late 2001.

The Indian Navy's quick response to the tsunami disaster in 2004 convinced the last remaining cynics in the Pentagon of the need to tie up with the Indian fleet.

The Americans are of course also using the "strategic" assessment to bring India on board the PSI and to sell this country "big ticket items" such as maritime reconnaissance aircraft with both Lockheed Martin and Boeing in the picture.

2160/2321/1414