NEW DELHI: Indian Navy’s plans towards the 200 ship force will be achieved in the future but at present, the focus is towards reaching the 170 ship force level with a tweaked timeline, said Vice Admiral Satish Namdeo Ghormade, Vice Chief of Naval Staff on Tuesday while briefing media on the commissioning of the first of Project-15B class stealth guided-missile destroyer 'Visakhapatnam' on November 21 and the fourth Scorpene-class submarine 'Vela' on November 25.
Indian Navy is making continuous efforts to ensure the force levels grow progressively to enhance the capability to meet the emerging challenges as the Maritime environment is a complex one and it only increases with more number of players involved, said Ghormade.
“Earlier the plan was for 170 (ships) by 2027 but over the period, of course, there has been a delay in the procurement and acquisition process. Now we are reformulating the Maritime Capability Perspective Plan (MCPP) for the next 15 years, but the Integrated Capability Development Plan (ICAP), which has come up, is for a ten-year period. Why we work on a 15-year model, is because the Navy’s projects have a long gestation period. We need to have a much larger timeframe for induction,” he explained.
The Navy currently has 130 ships. With ICAP under the Department of Military Affairs (DMA), “the work is progressing on the tri-services front to make an integrated development system, in which our Maritime Capability Perspective Plan has been included into it, which will ensure that our process continues.”
"MCPP caters to capability-dominant and threat-cum-mission based approaches. The capabilities are built over a period of time, which will meet our capability across the spectrum of warfare. From the lower density to nuclear war," he said.
When asked about the issue of new warships being made available to Pakistan by China, the Vice Chief said even as the threats keep changing, the plan takes care of that and emerging threats. it is reviewed every five years.
On the need for a second Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC-II) and the debate over carriers versus submarines and islands, Vice Adm Ghormade said all platforms like carrier, submarine, and maritime patrol aircraft have a definite role to raise a balanced force.
“The aircraft carrier, the submarines, maritime patrol aircraft all have their definite role, therefore to make a balanced force all these are required for the capability of the country. When we make this plan (MCPP) we have factored in the aircraft carrier, we have factored in submarines. On which we are worked on the affordability.”
Terming the commissioning of ‘Visakhapatnam’ and ‘Vela’ as major milestones in the sphere of indigenisation, he said, as many as 39 ships and submarines are presently under construction at various Indian shipyards across the country.
The contract for the construction of four ships under Project-15B was signed in January 2011 at a project cost of about ₹29,643.74 crore. The final cost of the project is ₹35,000 crore. The four ships are christened after major cities from all four corners of the country - Visakhapatnam, Mormugao, Imphal, and Surat. The remaining ships would be commissioned one per year from 2022 to 2024.
Similarly, the fifth Scorpene undergoing trials is scheduled to be commissioned by October 2022 and the sixth and last submarine by the end 2023.