Big power game on the high seas
Hindustan TimesThere is also a very high likelihood that the Cabinet Committee on Security led by him could sign off this month on the acquisition of 26 Rafale-Maritime strike fighters for aircraft carrier INS Vikrant and three additional Scorpene class submarines from France. There’s been a lot of attention on the threat India faces on its land borders in the North and the West, but the government and the Indian Navy are equally alert to the threat from the Indo-Pacific where PLAN has been expanding rapidly in the past decade, especially in the Indian Ocean Region. One statistic highlights the threat better than most: China has added the equivalent of the Indian Navy’s entire fleet strength to PLAN in just the past decade. The threat is clear: Beijing’s cartographical domination of the South China Sea and PLAN’s rapidly expanding footprint in the Indo-Pacific is of concern to Quad powers, particularly India. While the defence ministry accepted the Navy’s plan to construct seven more heavy destroyers at the cost of ₹70,000 crore last year, India also needs to keep its warship and submarine manufacturing ticking as it takes nearly a decade from government approval to commissioning.
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India begins to flex its naval power as competition with China grows
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