US looks Andaman for stronger Naval presence

US looks Andaman for stronger Naval presence

The US navy is currently looking for a stronger naval pretense in Indian Ocean with the help of Indian Navy, US looks for the Andaman naval base to carryout operations against Chinese increasing naval activity in Indian ocean as well as Bay of Bengal, where Indian navy short on legs to confront the Chinese violations in Indian waters.

US will support the Indians by providing real time imaginary of Chinese naval ship movements to Indian navy to confront. US may fly the modern MQ 4C BAMS along with the Indian navy P 8I for long endurance surveillance.  

India almost close to sign the military logistics supply agreement with the Americans, which can support each others military operations, also include humanitarian and disaster relief, with the logistics agreements US and India both works together to solve issues related to both nations. The modified LSA agreements specially focus the Chinese aggression near Indian borders.

After breaking the decade old ideology of non alignment, The new government taken better steps to counter the Chinese influence in Indian sub continent, which include revamping all stalled construction near Chinese border. where China forced the Indian government to freeze all construction works close to borders.

This include a bridge construction near Ladakh, more number of ITBP outpost construction, allowing US search and rescue team to search for the mortal remains of B 24 bomber crashed near Arunachal, these all plans are forced to freeze due to the Chinese influence. Even more China irked the Indian navy by sending warships and nuclear submarines inside Indian waters in Andaman. where Indian navy short on legs to confront the Chinese ships.

The new government taken some good steps, revamping all constructions close to border, establishing naval bases and re innovating the abandoned air fields close to the Chinese border, even more teaming with the US to counter Chinese influence.

US navy admirals once expressed about the interest of using Andaman islands to operate the Navy's MQ 4C Triton maritime surveillance drone. The same drone which is offered to Indian navy and still  on consideration. with the use of this base, US Navy can monitor the movement of Chinese ships and submarines in Indian ocean and Bay of Bengal through Malacca strait.

Malacca strait  is the narrow way which can be used by the Chinese to enter Indian waters, When war erupts between China and India, China try to  breach Indian waters through that way. To counter the Chinese navy India almost beefed up the security of Andaman, by deploying modern warships missile boats and patrol ships.

Even during the Exercise Malabar both nations stimulated ASW warfare using submarines and P 8I aircraft in bay of Bengal to Malacca strait, which irked the Chinese way too much. Not only that India finding all measures to counter China, with the south China sea issue in far other side, issues near LAC. All these makes China think twice before doing any misadventures against any nations nearby.

More than twenty of landing strips near to the Chinese borders established by the IAF is NATO standard, which means all NATO military aircraft's can operate from that air strips. Where China tries to pin down Indian air force by engaging with only ground troops. where the territories gives upper edge to the Chinese forces.

US look of Andaman is for only one mission, to work with the Indian navy to stop or confront the Chinese ships sailing repeatedly over Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal, where Indian navy short on legs to confront them, Indian Navy alone tried the same, due to lower number of ships and equipment Chinese ships easily bypass Indian warnings.

For temporary base deployment US and India must sign another military contract, what exactly is allowing US forces in India. the contract named EDCA. However India doesn't seems to sign. So US may provide clear picture of Chinese naval activity's near IOR if Indian navy asks.

The Indian UAV Arsenal

The Indian UAV Arsenal

Indian Army Nishant UAV

     It's unbelievable numbers of unmanned platforms currently on the tri -services.  not only but Armed forces want double the Numbers of UAV's, as of now estimated that the Armed forces using more than two hundred of unmanned platforms.

        The Forces looking for micro UAV's like the Raven to MQ 4 Triton HALE UAV's, as of now Army operating more number of MALE ( medium altitude long endurance ) UAV's most of them used for only Reconnaissance and Target Tracking, which they designed to used,

         But the Air force  uses Killer drones like the Israeli Harpy and Haroop drones. the number of these drones still classified, that nearly hundred of them under operational by the Indian Air force, these drones used for SEAD operations only.

        The Haroop is an advanced UCAV used only by the Indians and Israeli's designed to Kill enemy radars and early warning networks, due to it's highly stabilized aero dynamic and slow speed, it's more maneuverable and fly too low and loiter before attack the target, this is the only good platform to attack high value targets before going to full assault.

          The Indian Airforce and Navy operating more advanced recon platform the IAI Heron MALE UAV's which can capable to fly more than two days continuously at an altitude of 10,000 Meters, they using this platform to track and recon specified area's for Counter Intelligence mission. some good characteristics are if you lost the control of such UAV's the UAV itself come back where you launched. such capabilities gives an upper edge to the  UAV can't fall in enemy hands, like the RQ 170 saga.  the Numbers of Heron is estimated more than sixty.

        But the Army uses dedicated UAV's, Army have more than hundreds of IAI Searcher drones. significantly less performance compared to the Heron. both range and altitude unlike the Heron It's designed to capable of tracking ground threats and recon missions. here also the numbers are unknown but more than 100 drones is in operational under the Army Aviation as of now.

   The home grown ADE Nishat is an another good UAV used by the Army, Nearly 10 of them under operational only by the Indian Army. unlike other drones It's have some other good features, a bit difficult to launch, you need the catapult truck to launch the Nishant, and it can be land with the use of Parachute free fall technique. the Nishant is an Battle UAV, used for many operation, since it's Endurance is capped less than 4 hours.

       But it can do good things such as guidance to target acquisition, Artillery fire support, that means, the Nishant guide the Artillery course to set the co ordinates correct to the enemy positions, to increase the Kill probability of Artillery, SIGNINT- the Nishant's payload capable to intercept enemy communications, if Nishant flies above enemy post any if they using wireless for communication Nishant track it and feed it to Indian command centers.

         There is a wheeled version of Nishant under trails knows as Panchi, which can be fulfill the Army's requirement and improvements in the early Nishant model, if trails successful army plans to add a fleet of hundred such UAV's in it's fleet to increase the Fire and Recon power.

    The Navy and DRDO uses the PTA for testing purpose, which can be used for testing Air defense missile's performance, the Lakshya used as a Target to the SAM and other Missiles to measure the performance of the SAM and missile system, the Astra and Akash already tested with PTA.

        There were couple more micro UAV's under operational by the Forces the good one is the NETRA Quad copter, it's not comes under the UAV category, it's good for search and rescue's Indian Para military such as BSF, ITBP using this. under NDRF it's proven it's performance in tough terrian and weather conditions.

   DRDO also studying the possible UCAV's the armed fighting drone under the code name of Aura, but the program is too classified and the details unknown to the Public.

   DRDO also engaged a project which is a HALE UAV which powered by solar power, used for long endurance recon mission, which is expected to be revealed within two years.  

Indian Air force Heron UAV