Editorial: Security concerns over Sino-Pak naval embrace

Islamabad’s move to acquire Chinese-built advanced Hangor-class submarines should prompt India to accelerate its efforts to enhance anti-submarine warfare capabilities

In the shifting geopolitical landscape, Pakistan’s expanding naval partnership with China presents a significant security challenge to India. Islamabad is preparing to acquire a fleet of eight Chinese-built advanced Hangor-class submarines, a development likely to challenge India’s dominance in the northern Indian Ocean. By providing Pakistan with modern submarines and ongoing training and logistical support, Beijing aims to establish operational familiarity in the northern Indian Ocean, a vital region for its energy and trade routes to the Middle East. The latest Sino-Pak deal should prompt India to accelerate its efforts to enhance anti-submarine warfare capabilities, long-endurance surveillance, and undersea domain awareness. Though the Indian Navy has been making rapid strides in recent years in terms of an indigenisation drive, with the commissioning of mighty warships such as the first indigenously built aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, the pace of expansion of its fleet size, enough to challenge China on the high seas, is still not up to the mark. The quicker turnaround by naval shipyards is all the more important now from a strategic point of view because the Chinese navy is increasing its reach at a rapid pace. Despite considerable efforts, warship construction endeavours in India continue to suffer from systemic deficits. A programme mired in delays and cost overruns needs a critical audit.

Hangor submarines, equipped with Air-Independent Propulsion (AIP) technology, have a significantly longer time span of remaining submerged. This considerably enhances its capacity for stealth, providing a significant edge in underwater combat capabilities. This renders a direct challenge to India’s naval dominance. Along with providing an edge in deterrence, these AIP-equipped Hangor-class submarines can also be integrated with nuclear-capable cruise missiles. Currently, the Indian Navy has 19 operational submarines, 16 of which are diesel-powered and three are nuclear-powered. Many of these conventional submarines are nearing the end of their life. Since 1999, despite plans to commission 24 submarines by 2030 under Project-75, only six Scorpene-class submarines have been built. The three remaining nuclear submarines are believed to be inadequate to measure up to the growing competition from China. No doubt, the blueprint of naval modernisation drawn up by India is quite ambitious. It has set a target of expanding its naval vessel fleet to 200 warships and submarines by 2030. However, factors like the slower pace of indigenisation, import dependency, and ageing platforms are slowing down the expansion plans. Keeping in view China’s growing presence in the Indian Ocean region, India needs to increase its fleet size at a rapid pace. However, this is no easy task, as on average, for every two to three ships inducted, one from the existing lot retires due to age. China has built 138 warships in the last 10 years. The scale of the Chinese naval build-up outstrips India by almost four times at a time when it is bringing the naval contest to India’s maritime backyard.

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