In a sign of its growing global outreach, the Indian Navy is associating with 21 countries and 22 multi-national agencies for quick sharing of information related to maritime activities in the Indian Ocean Region.
At any given time, the Indian Navy monitors close to 12,000 ships and 300 fishing vessels in the Indian Ocean Region. Apart from that, there are close to 3 lakh Indian fishing vessels operating in the seas and their activities too are observed by the force.
The Indian Ocean Region accounts for 75 per cent of the world’s maritime trade and 50 percent of global consumption passes through it prompting security measures involving multiple countries.
Now, the Indian Navy is able to get real time information through its Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region.
The force is associated with 21 countries including Australia, France, Italy, Japan, the Maldives, the US, New Zealand, Mauritius, Myanmar and Bangladesh, among others, along with 22 multi-national agencies for quick sharing of information in the Indian Ocean Region.
The International Fusion Centre, located at Gurugram, was started in December 2018 to facilitate maritime information to the member countries.
Three countries — France, Japan, and the US — have sent their liaison officers to the centre for better coordination and real time sharing of sea activities, while many more countries are expected to deploy their liaison officers, once Covid-19 protocols are lifted.
The Indian Navy has got the go ahead to have white shipping agreements with 36 countries, out of which 22 have been signed and 17 operationalised, sources said.
Earlier this month, the ‘Malabar’ maritime exercise between navies of the Quad or Quadrilateral Coalition – an informal security forum comprising India, the US, Japan and Australia – in Indian Ocean Region was hosted in two phases by Indian Navy in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea.
This set up is apart from Indian government’s Security and Growth for All in the Region (Sagar) initiative which reiterates India’s position as a dependable partner in Indian Ocean Region with Indian Navy as the principal maritime agency and first responder in the maritime domain.
SITMEX-20
Recently, the naval forces of India, Singapore, and Thailand had engaged in a trilateral maritime exercise ‘SITMEX-20’ in the Andaman Sea to strengthen mutual confidence and develop common understanding and procedures towards enhancing overall maritime security in the region.
As part of the second edition of the exercise, Indian Navy ships, including indigenously built anti-submarine warfare corvette Kamorta, and missile corvette Karmuk, participated.
The SITMEX exercises are conducted to enhance mutual inter-operability and imbibing best practices between the Indian Navy, Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN), and Royal Thai Navy (RTN). The 2020 edition of the exercise is hosted by RSN.
RSN is represented by the ‘Formidable’ Class frigate ‘Intrepid’ and ‘Endurance’ Class Landing Ship Tank ‘Endeavour’ and RTN by the ‘Chao Phraya’ Class frigate ‘Kraburi’ in the exercise.
The exercise, conducted as a ‘non-contact, at sea only’ exercise in view of COVID-19 pandemic, highlights growing synergy, coordination and cooperation in the maritime domain between the three navies and maritime neighbours.
Sea Guardian Drones
The Indian Navy has got the Sea Guardian drone, a version of the famed armed predator drones, to maintain a watch over the vast stretch of the Indian Ocean region.
The Sea Guardians, manufactured by General Atomics, can fly for 37 hours at a stretch, monitoring every movement in the high seas and will give the navy an edge over its adversaries.
India is acquiring the drones through a lease, possibly because of a fund crunch. Recently the government changed the policy on acquiring weapon systems and allowed the services to lease instead of outright purchase.
There are over 100 warships at any given point of time in the Indian Ocean as the area has seen increased flows of trade and energy and therefore militarised rapidly.
The drones will have significant capabilities for the Indian Navy increasing its domain awareness and ability to maintain a vigil over the areas that stretch from the Gulf in the west to the crucial Malacca strait in East and vast waters of the southern Indian Ocean.