30
Jul

India plans to build 100 warships

Posted by: Scott @ 5:17 pm in India, Military, foreign policy  | 125 views

China’s Navy is going through a massive, blue-water build up too.

What could go wrong?

India has plans to add about 100 warships to its navy over the next decade as it seeks to modernise its armed forces, and develop its low-cost shipbuilding capabilities.

Captain Alok Bhatnagar, director of naval plans at India’s ministry of defence, said on Thursday that 32 warships and submarines were under construction in the country’s shipyards. Work on 75 more ships, including aircraft carriers, destroyers, frigates and amphibious vessels, would begin over 10 years.

New Delhi is sensitive to lagging behind Beijing’s naval might in the region. China has three times the number of combat vessels as India and five times the personnel. Officials are wary of port developments in neighbouring Pakistan and Sri Lanka that offer Chinese warships anchorages and potentially greater control of the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea.

However, India has one of the fastest growing navies in the world. Its fleet of about 120 vessels is the fifth largest. At the weekend, it launched a locally built nuclear-powered submarine, based on a Russian design, to join only a few countries with the technical prowess to produce such a war machine.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 30th, 2009 at 5:17 pm and is filed under India, Military, foreign policy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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7 comments so far

tfhr
 1Reply to this comment  

We need to stay close to the world’s most populated democracy and that includes military assistance and cooperation.

July 30th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
blast
 2Reply to this comment  

Troubling that our resources and trade have built both China’s and India’s economies to the point that they can have the money to spend on expanding their military.

July 30th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Cuss
 3Reply to this comment  

Eh India’s number one target in general will be Muslims, imo anyway.

August 1st, 2009 at 10:09 am
GaffaUK
 4Reply to this comment  

Meanwhile isn’t the West still providing overseas aid to India to help alleviate it’s rural poverty? If it’s got enough money for these ships & a space program I don’t see why the west should shoulder the responsibility and cost of India’s internal issues.

August 2nd, 2009 at 8:52 pm
tfhr
 5Reply to this comment  

@GaffaUK:

Right, who would want to aid a democracy anyway? For instance, they’ve got their own military and first responders of every kind, so why on Earth would we ever want to assist them if they had some sort of massive earthquake or flood, right?

Better yet, we should dictate to them to ignore traditional regional threats like Pakistan and China as a precondition to any sort of aid at all. Is that what you want? They’ve fought wars with both and both are nuclear powers that also wield large military forces but it’s entirely unreasonable for India to want to protect their citizens from attack. Shouldn’t you be calling your MP about this?

August 2nd, 2009 at 9:08 pm
MataHarley
 6Reply to this comment  

Considering how Pakistan’s repeated truce with Taliban and militants isn’t working out…. again… and the POTUS who happens to be sitting in the Oval Office, I believe India’s attention to their national defense is a very wise idea. In the event of trouble, they are likely to be on their own with Obama as CIC.

August 2nd, 2009 at 11:58 pm
GaffaUK
 7Reply to this comment  

@tfhr

As you can see I’m not refering to sudden disasters such as earthquakes etc – in those scenerios no matter where in the world – developed or developing – many countries rightly pitch in. And defence is a primary need – but so is the ability to feed yourself. India already has nuclear weapons so it’s unlikely that a serious all out war on land or sea will happen anytime soon between India and Pakistan or India and China – beyond the usual border clashes. As I say if India which along with China is rising and becoming more affluent (in some areas of it’s society) then it’s time it didn’t rely on aid for poverty etc.

August 3rd, 2009 at 12:26 am

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