Indian Council of World Affairs

Abstract: ‘INS Arighat’ will further enhance sea based nuclear deterrence capacity of the Indian Navy. Recent modernisation and enhanced capacities of the Navy complements India’s responsibility as a major regional power with maritime security interests, scope of which have broadened. 

On 29 August 2024, the second Arihant-class submarine ‘INS Arighaat’ was commissioned into the Indian Navy in Visakhapatnam. ‘INS Arighat’ added new teeth to the Indian navy, further enhancing its nuclear deterrence capacity. The Indian Ministry of Defence’s press release mentioned that ‘Arighaat’ “will further strengthen India’s nuclear triad, enhance nuclear deterrence, help in establishing strategic balance and peace in the region, and play a decisive role in the security of the country”.[1] It also noted that the newly added ‘INS Arighaat’ is technologically more advanced than its precursor ‘INS Arihant’. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who was present on the occasion, said that “especially in today's geopolitical scenario. Along with economic prosperity, we need a strong military”….and “top-quality weapons and platforms made on Indian soil”.[2] 

The Indian Navy has undergone significant modernisation and advancement over the past few decades, in consonance with India’s policy priorities. A growing realisation in India’s policy circles of an earlier preoccupation with continental concerns in country’s strategic thinking, is gradually giving way to equivalence between the continental and the maritime. The maritime aspect is now one of the primary priorities in the country’s foreign policy. In recent years, India’s maritime security strategy has broadened in scope, as India with its geographical location at the centre of the Indian Ocean, looks beyond its immediate region, with growing economic and maritime military capacities and strategic ambitions in the wider Indo-Pacific region. 

The increasing salience of the Indo-Pacific, is a reflection of the emerging geo-political realities of the time, it brings to the fore, the centrality of Indian Ocean more than ever before. This is accompanied by an unprecedented geopolitical churn in the region and beyond, with varied interests of regional, extra regional and global players. 

India has been engaging, with its partners across the Indo-Pacific, in a collaborative manner. Maritime security is an important facet of India’s engagements with the Indian Ocean littoral states and through various formal and informal structures currently in place. There is also an increasing focus on islands both in the Indian and the Pacific Ocean. India’s dynamic and action oriented, ‘Act East Policy’, has completed a decade of fostering India’s cooperation with extended eastern neighbours with enhanced geographic reach and strategic substance. 

In line with the enhanced outreach and interest in the IOR and in the Indo-Pacific region, the Indian Navy is being accordingly fundamentally restructured so that it will have considerable power projection capabilities to be able to play a substantive role far from its shores. Over the period of time, there has been considerable enhancement in “the Indian Navy’s capabilities for exercising deterrence, projecting maritime power, providing maritime security and safeguarding India’s maritime interests”.[3]

Along with modernisation, an important facet of the India’s maritime strategy has also been, the Indian Navy’s ‘committment to ‘indigenisation and self-reliance’, with emphasis on indigenous research and development. [4] The launch of ‘INS Vikrant’, India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier, built by the Cochin Shipyard Ltd., in August 2013 was an ‘important landmark’ in India’s shipbuilding endeavour.

In 2016, with the commissioning of ‘INS Arihant’, as the first indigenous nuclear-powered submarine, India became the sixth country in the world to build and operate nuclear powered submarines.[5] ‘INS Arihant’ conducted its first deterrence patrol in 2018[6]  and carried out a successful user training launch of a Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM) in 2022, affirming India’s ‘second strike and nuclear deterrence capability’.[7] Now with the induction of the second nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine,[8] ‘INS Arighat’, and already present ‘INS Arihant’, the Navy has two indigenous SSBN submarines, to patrol the high seas and enhance its ‘sea based nuclear deterrence’ and ‘second strike capacity’.[9] “India’s capability to deter potential adversaries and safeguard its national interests” has been further enhanced with the new addition to the Navy. Reportedly, these will be followed by two more such SSBN planned to be commissioned in future. [10] 

The Indian Navy is committed to overall “maritime security, including coastal and offshore security”.[11] It is also engaged in various cooperative frameworks and mechanisms including several complex bilateral and multilateral exercises with foreign navies, and in platforms like Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS), deployment for anti-piracy and HADR operations. All these reflect the important role the Indian Navy plays as a ‘security provider’ in the IOR. Here, Navy’s Information Fusion Centre-Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) set up in 2018, plays a crucial role as the nodal centre for sharing maritime security related information and for keeping the maritime space in IOR democratically available.  The centre is envisioned to support India’s capacity building in the region furthering its vision of ‘SAGAR’ and facilitating India’s role as a ‘net security provider in the region’. 

In recent years, the IOR has witnessed enhanced military presence of regional and global powers. Along with intense geopolitical contestations and a constantly evolving strategic situation in the region, there has been an increase in various non-traditional challenges like piracy, armed robbery, natural disasters, climate related issues, from non-state actors, in the Indo-Pacific maritime theatre. 

Recently, the security situation in the region has deteriorated in the light of rising tensions in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, with the Houthi rebels undertaking series of attacks, and frequent pirate attacks on vessels passing through the region. The Indian Navy, with its ‘blue water’ capacity and capability, demonstrated its readiness with swift response to situations like these as in the case of hijacking of the Malta flagged bulk carrier MV Ruen in December 2023 and thwarted attack on the Iranian-flagged fishing vessel FV Omaril, off the east coast of Somalia. In March 2024, the Indian Navy marked one hundred days of the ongoing security operation Op. Sankalp, which was launched by the Navy, for conducting maritime security operations in “three areas of operations, Gulf of Aden and adjoining areas, Arabian Sea and off the East Coast of Somalia”. The Press release on the occasion, mentioned that, “the Indian Navy has responded to the manifestation of Israel-Hamas conflict in the maritime domain by re-orienting and significantly enhancing the scope of its ongoing maritime security operations since mid December 2023”. Under this Operation the Navy “responded to 18 incidents, deployed over 5000 personnel at sea, saved  over 110 lives (including 45 Indian seafarers), escorted 15 lakh tons of critical commodities, seized more than 3000 kgs. of narcotics”. During the operation, the Navy also coordinated “missions with IAF and national agencies, highlighting the synergy and interoperability of the Services”.[12] 

Speaking on the success of Op. Sankalp, the then Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Hari Kumar said that “the Indian Navy will take affirmative action to ensure there is safety and security in the Indian Ocean, as the largest resident naval power in the Ocean”.[13] 

This has again proved that the Indian Navy is committed to its resolve to ‘secure the seas’ and “protect the maritime community from various non-traditional threats present in the region”,[14] with capabilities to play a significant role as a responsible and a strong navy in the Indian Ocean. These efforts are in line with India’s overall vision of the Indo-Pacific region of which the Indian Ocean is a central part; the vision envisages a free, open, inclusive, peaceful, and prosperous region built on rules-based international order. As a resident nation, India is a major stakeholder in the IOR and the wider Indo-Pacific. It has capabilities and responsibilities, being the largest navy and coast guard presence in the Ocean named after it, to work towards building a secure, stable and cohesive IOR. 

India’s ‘growing maritime interests, across wide geographical spaces, underscores the central importance of adequate power projection capabilities and off shore assets and capabilities to respond to maritime contingencies’.[15] As a modern, versatile and capable ‘blue water’ force, the Indian Navy plays an important role as ‘first responder’ and ‘preferred security partner’ for the countries in the IOR. Maintaining preparedness and presence for all exigencies and a deterrent posture that ensures peace,[16] necessitates augmentation in capabilities of the Navy, commensurate with India’s profile as a major regional power that is seeking to be a global power.

*****

*Dr. Pragya Pandey, Research Fellow, Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA)
Disclaimer: The views expressed are personal.

Endnotes

[1] Second Arihant-Class submarine ‘INS Arighaat’ commissioned into Indian Navy in the presence of Raksha Mantri in Visakhapatnam, 29 AUG 2024, https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2049870

[2] I. bid, no. 1

[3] Ensuring Secure Seas: Indian Maritime Security Strategy Indian Navy Naval Strategic Publication (NSP) 1.2 October 2015, https://bharatshakti.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Indian_Maritime_Security_Strategy_Document_25Jan16.pdf

[4] Ensuring Secure Seas: Indian Maritime Security Strategy Indian Navy Naval Strategic Publication (NSP) 1.2 October 2015, https://bharatshakti.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Indian_Maritime_Security_Strategy_Document_25Jan16.pdf

[5] Ministry of Defence 2015, Government of India, Annual Report 2013-14, https://www.mod.gov.in/dod/annual-report-year-2013-2014

[6] INS Arighaat commissioned: Why a second nuclear submarine matters for India, 21 August 2024

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/ins-arighaat-commissioned-nuclear-sub-importance-9541813/

[7] INS Arihant launches Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile, 14 October 2022, https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/ins-arihant-launches-submarine-launched-ballistic-missile/article66010395.ece

[8] https://www.business-standard.com/external-affairs-defence-security/news/ins-arighat-joins-navy-how-will-ssns-ssbns-transform-india-s-defence-124090200363_1.html

[9] India to get its 2nd nuclear submarine, 29 August 2024,

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/india-to-get-its-2nd-nuclear-submarine-101724870836535.html#:~:text=India%20will%20now%20have%20two,%2Dfirst%2Duse%20policy).

[10] https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/ins-arighaat-how-india-s-2nd-nuclear-submarine-is-major-defence-boost-explained-101724938709013.html

[11] I.bid no. 4

[12] Indian Navy's Ongoing Maritime Security Operations (‘OP SANKALP’) 14 Dec 23 to 23 Mar 24, https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=2016201

[13] 100 days of Op Sankalp, TOI, March 23, 2024,http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/108732026.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

[14] Ibid

[15] Ministry of Defence, Navy, Integrated Headquarters, 2007,  Government of India, Freedom to Use the SEAS: India’s Maritime Military Strategy, pp.33, http://indiannavy.nic.in/maritime_strat.pdf

[16] I. bid.