Saturday, October 31, 2009

India has an ambitious but screwed military policy

We have an 51-year old ship from UK with us in the navy. It is an aircraft carrier called INS  VIRAAT. It is in the news today as it was repaired recently and is expected to be back to service.

Aircraft carriers can let you fly fighters from the ship while at sea anywhere in the world. You might have seen one in Pearl Harbour movie. What it does is let the enemies know that when needed, we can reach you, even if you are on the other side of the globe.

All seems good, we have a grand old ship that can carry planes, India rules.
Only, we don't have any enemies except at our borders. And these enemies can be bombed by flying fighters from our own land. But we don't really do anything.

If we can't take military action against enemies that exist on our borders, what is the point of having a ship that can be used to bomb countries on the other side of globe?

In the picture: INS VIRAAT out in the sea, wasting both fuel and government's attention.

6 comments:

  1. i think the author should read more about the role of an aircraft carrier in naval forces of a nation, it is the one which monitors the other ships, that can be involved in piracy or smuggling, in the oceans near the country.and it is only an example it has lot more to do in ocean.

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  2. and one thing more the shit has been already written by the author, so no need to do that.

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  3. I took your advice and read about aircraft carriers. I found that hey do only one thing: carry fighter planes to distant places. Read yourself at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_carrier. Also, can you explain what 'it has lot more to do in ocean' means?

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  4. http://indiannavy.nic.in/1971.htm
    the author should refer this link before insisting that wikipedia's is the most referred site on net. he should consider other options also

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  5. This is what's on the page mentioned by Vikas : The Indian Navy's aircraft carrier and her
    aircraft played a decisive role in the Eastern
    theatre of the war. The Seahawk and Alize
    squadrons wrecked havoc on vital
    installations in East Pakistan. Very shortly,
    the Indian Navy's Eastern Fleet was in
    complete control of the sea and the
    surrounding air space. Pakistani troops,
    desperate to escape, sought to use
    merchant ships for military purposes. Four
    Pakistani tugs, the merchant ship Baquir,
    and a Liberian ship were intercepted and
    escorted to Indian ports. Many others were
    either scuttled or captured. Moonless nights
    were selected for the missile boat attack on
    Karachi harbour. The attack was one of the
    historic moments of the Indian Navy's
    victory and remains etched in naval
    memory. The only Indian ship lost during
    the 1971 operations was the frigate INS
    Khukri.
    Where does it talk of smuggling and other things? It is still doing the same: transport fiighters, in this case to Pakistan, at this time in history, we couldn't reach that part of Pakistan with direct flights from India mainland. Now, we can. ANYWAY, INS VIRAAT WAS COMMISSIONED IN 1987, that is 16 years after the 1971 war. I don't know which aircraft carrier the indian navy site refers to, as India has got only one carrier till date.

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  6. what ever it is. the thing is a country should have full capabilities to defend itself from all cornerns. US has large number [thousands] of nuclear warheads when only few are required to destroy the whole globe. so why it is maintaining such a stockpile ! when it comes to defend the country every nation should be prepared to deal with the worse conditions. now you will say why india is researching on long range nuclear capable missiles [agni series] when we have closer enemies. india just added a nuclear powered submarine and capable of lauching nuclear warheads from the see itself !
    army navi and airforce these are the main elements of any nation and they should be maintained [top priority].

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