What is happening in the waters of the Indian Ocean between India and China?
All the details on India's $4.8 billion super projects to deal with China's ever-increasing presence in the Indian Ocean.
India will equip itself with a third aircraft carrier to exercise maximum deterrence against the Chinese navy which is increasingly present in the waters of the Indian Ocean. Here's what we know about a project for which an investment of 4.8 billion dollars is expected and which is not the only one from which the Indian Navy is benefiting.
THE DECISION
As Bloomberg reports, India will build a new aircraft carrier with the aim of countering China's naval presence in the Indian Ocean region.
The acquisition will be formalized today by the Defense Acquisition Council, the supreme decision-making body of Indian Defense led by Defense Minister Rajnathsing.
THIRD AIRCRAFT CARRIER
The new aircraft carrier will be the third supplied to the Indian Navy which, as Newsweek reminds us, will join the INS Vikramaditya built in Russia and the INS Vikrant, which is an indigenous variant built last year by the Cochin Shipyard group.
THE RAFALE ON BOARD
The aircraft carrier, for which an investment of 4.8 billion dollars is expected, will be able to transport 28 examples of French Rafale jets, in a decision that reflects India's military modernization which also involves the decommissioning of old Soviet and Russian fighters .
GOALS
As Bloomberg observes, having three aircraft carriers will allow Delhi to flex its muscles in a context such as the Indian Ocean where China deploys what is the largest fleet in the world with 370 ships and submarines.
The Indian Ocean is a highly militarized zone with a simultaneous presence of at least 125 ships from countries such as the USA, France and Japan – a number three times higher than the number of ships that were deployed in the area in the aftermath of the mega-attacks of September 11, 2001.
NEVER SO MANY SHIPS SINCE THE SECOND WORLD WAR
As Bloomberg points out, the waters off India have never seen such competition since the Second World War and today represent one of the theaters in which the tug-of-war between the US and China is taking place.
TARGET 175 SHIPS
As Newsweek reports, India currently has 132 warships, 143 planes and 130 helicopters. According to the government's intentions, the country will have 160 ships by 2030 and 175 by 2035, with an estimated investment of two trillion rupees. More than 60 vessels of the Indian Navy are currently being built in Indian shipyards.
Interviewed by Newsweek , former vice admiral of the Indian Navy Shekhar Sinha explained that his country "is exclusively interested in protecting its economic interests and the security of our maritime lines of communication."
NAVAL STRATEGY
Already at this moment India is strengthening its naval strategy, carrying out an increasing number of patrols. The country has also built new airports in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to allow planes to land even at night, thus exercising tight surveillance over the strategic Straits of Malacca, Sunda and Lombok in the southern Indian Ocean.
An expanded fleet will allow India the ability to exert influence in the seas by being continuously present at multiple distant locations.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/che-succede-nelle-acque-delloceano-indiano-tra-india-e-cina/ on Thu, 30 Nov 2023 10:30:09 +0000.