Subject: Internal Security

Every year, India celebrates December 4 as Navy Day to commemorate Operation Trident – a key offensive during the 1971 India-Pakistan War. This year, it is the 50^th anniversary of the victory in the 1971 War.

This newscard is crucial for the CAPF aspirants. It hardly holds any importance for CS prelims. But the grit, glory and honour of our armed forces is a matter of pride that every CS aspirants should know.

Operation Trident

• The India-Pakistan War of 1971 had begun on December 3, when the Pakistan Air Force launched pre-emptive strikes on airfields in Western India.
• Following the Battle of Longewala, the Indian Navy inflicted heavy damage on Pakistani vessels in Karachi harbour.
• India responded by formally declaring war in the wee hours of December 4.
• On December 4, under Operation Trident, the Indian Navy sank three vessels near the Pakistani port city of Karachi.
• The Indian Air Force also played a crucial role, when Karachi’s Kemari oil tanks were strafed by the IAF on the same day in an independent operation which it did not claim.

The article suggests projection of naval power to ensure the stability in the Indian Ocean. 

Quad conducts Malabar exercise

• In November, the Quad converged to continue the Malabar series, with a total of just eight ships.
• The idea of Quad is to form a grouping of democratic nations in the Indian Ocean, and use naval power to convey a message to Beijing.
• The message a grouping of eight ships would convey to a nation thinking in terms of five aircraft carriers remains would not be taken seriously.

Importance of naval power in ensuring oceanic stability

• There is no substitute for naval power to ensure oceanic stability, but one alternative lies in the area of Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA). 
• Perhaps, some thought may already have been given to MDA in the twin agreement to BECA (Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement), and Maritime Information Sharing Technical Agreement (MISTA) signed between India and the US.
• There is little information available in the public domain about MISTA.
• But MISTA should cover an omnibus agreement for Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) operating and information sharing for the entire Indo-Pacific.
• The Pacific has a high density of MPA assets, while they are sparse in the Indian Ocean, particularly the western Indian Ocean.
• The Australians can cover the Malacca Straits, but for the west Indian Ocean, the US will probably have to base a squadron of P-8 aircraft at Masirah or Diego Garcia.
• Today, the primary weapon system of most warships is the surface-to-surface missile, with ranges of up to 200 km.
• The ships’ sensor range is only up to 100 km.
• So, accurate target information has to be supplied beyond 100 km by aircraft or helicopters in what is called Over the Horizon Targeting (OTHT).
• With the Indo-Pacific fully covered by the MPAs of the Quad, a PLAN ship in the Indian Ocean is in imminent danger of being sunk at will

Conclusion

A public announcement of a division of the Indo-Pacific into areas of responsibility for MDA, between members of the Quad will send an unmistakable signal to Beijing. With a desultory Quad naval exercise, once a year of a few ships, Beijing will only be amused that a “threat” exists to its ambition to become a global power.

The Navy’s Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC), the nodal agency for maritime data fusion will soon become a National Maritime Domain Awareness (NMDA) centre.

Try this question:

Q“To be secure on Land, we must be Supreme at Sea”. In this context, discuss why India is primarily a Maritime Nation?

What is IMAC?

• The IMAC monitors movement of more than 120,000 ships a year passing through the Indian Ocean.
• The cargo carried by these ships account for 66 per cent of world crude oil, 50 per cent of container traffic and 33 per cent of bulk cargo.
• Thus, IMAC performs a very crucial role in collecting shipping information, analysing traffic patterns and sharing the inputs with the user agencies.
• It tracks vessels on the high seas and gets data from the coastal radars, white shipping agreements, Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) transponders fitted on merchant ships, air and traffic management system and global shipping databases.

Transforming to NDMAC

• The IMAC will soon transform into a national NMDA centre, wherein it will be a multi-agency centre.
• The NMDA project was launched in accordance with the vision of PM on SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region).
• Approved by the Defence Acquisition Council in 2012, the IMAC became operational in 2014 and is located in Gurugram.
• It is the nodal centre of the National Command Control Communication and Intelligence System (NC3I), which was established to link the Navy and the Coast Guard.

Why such a move?

• India has a coast line of about 7500 km and an Exclusive Economic Zone(EEZ) of over 2 million sq kms.
• In addition, we are endowed with abundant oceanic wealth comprising a large number of island territories and vast sea bed area, over 97 % of our national trade is carried by sea routes.
• It is therefore, imperative that we modernize the Navy which always has to be in a high state of preparedness.

The Indian Navy has inducted two MQ-9B Sea Guardian unarmed drones procured from the U.S. on lease.

Try this question from CSP 2018:

Q.What is “Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)”, sometimes seen in the news?

(a) An Israeli radar system

(b) India’s indigenous anti-missile programme

(c) An American anti-missile system

(d) A defence collaboration between Japan and South Korea

MQ-9B Sea Guardian

• The Guardian, which is the maritime variant of the Predator MQ-9 UAV, has a maximum endurance of 40 hours and a maximum flying altitude of 40,000 feet.
• It has 360-degree maritime surveillance radar and optional multimode maritime surface search radar.
• The drone can perform over-the-horizon long-endurance, medium-altitude Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions.
• The recently released Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020 has introduced an option for leasing military platforms.
• The Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-Spatial Cooperation (BECA) has simplified such high- technology cooperation.

About BECA

• BECA will help India get real-time access to American geospatial intelligence that will enhance the accuracy of automated systems and weapons like missiles and armed drones.
• Through the sharing of information on maps and satellite images, it will help India access topographical and aeronautical data, and advanced products that will aid in navigation and targeting.
• This could be a key to Air Force-to-Air Force cooperation between India and the US.
• BECA will provide Indian military systems with a high-quality GPS to navigate missiles with real-time intelligence to precisely target the adversary.
• Besides the sailing of ships, flying off aircraft, fighting of wars, and location of targets, geospatial intelligence is also critical to the response to natural disasters.