Commissioned in September 2022 by the Prime Minister as (the reincarnated) INS Vikrant, the conception and successful completion of this complex project signified a major achievement for our naval staff, ship designers and builders. launched India’s largest indigenously designed and built warship - an aircraft carrier. The navy’s bold vision saw its pinnacle in 2013 when Cochin Shipyard Ltd. In the half-century since, Indian shipyards have launched over a hundred warships ranging from patrol boats to destroyers and from hydrographic vessels to nuclear submarines. In the face of great scepticism, Mazagon Docks delivered the first, licence-built frigate, INS Nilgiri, in 1972. The fact that maritime dominance had expedited Pakistan’s surrender, however, failed to lift the pall of “sea-blindness” over Raisina Hill.Īlso Read | India’s maritime history runs deep and long hereĬarrying forward this tradition, India’s far-sighted naval leadership in the 1960s persuaded a reluctant government that the nation must also embark upon indigenous warships production. In the Bay of Bengal, while INS Vikrant’s aircraft mounted sustained attacks on East Pakistan’s airfields, ports and riverine traffic, its escorts cast a naval cordon that ensured that neither reinforcement nor evacuation was possible for the Pakistani army. On the night of December 4, 1971, a force of small missile boats audaciously approached Karachi port to unleash missile salvoes that sank warships, set alight huge fuel reserves, bottled up the Pakistan Navy and blockaded merchant shipping. Still smarting from the ignominy of its - government imposed - inaction in the 1965 Indo-Pak war, the navy’s leadership had pre-determined that maritime power would play a pivotal role in the 1971 conflict. Navy Day, celebrated annually to commemorate a famous naval victory, and to remind us of our maritime heritage, also provides an opportunity for “maritime stocktaking”. The 30-month-long Sino-Indian military impassein the Himalayas and C hina’s strategic posturing in the South China Seashould be clear pointers for India’s decision-makers that maritime power will have a critical role to play as an instrument of state policy in future outcomes.
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