Avoiding Indian Version of Mehran

[rkjindal91]

India plans 'major upgrade' to prevent
terror strikes from seas Jun 8, 2011, 04.59am IST TNN [ Rajat Pandit ] NEW DELHI: Terrorists
trained like marine
commandos to dive and slip
through harbour protection
systems could one day
unleash havoc by planting underwater bombs or mines
at a major port. This is no longer in the
realm of fiction in the
backdrop of the 26/11
terror strikes in Mumbai as
well as last month's Taliban
attack on Mehran naval airbase in Karachi, both of
which involved some
training of the jihadis by Pakistani marine commandos. To tackle such threats, India is now also
going in for “a major upgrade'' of its harbour protection systems (HPSs) at the
naval bases in Mumbai, Vizag, Karwar,
Kochi and Port Blair, along with the
ongoing security audit of ports, airfields,
naval facilities, offshore installations and
the like. Top defence ministry sources say the plan
is to “upgrade existing HPSs'' and “plug gaps'' to ensure that any nefarious
activity by regular or irregular enemy
forces are detected early and neutralized
swiftly. Navy, of course, already has some HPSs
like diver-detection sonars and
underwater physical nets. “Scare chargers'', which create sound waves to
burst the eardrums of hostile divers or
frogmen, are also used to secure areas if
suspicious underwater activity is detected
anytime. The upgrade plan will take them to an
altogether different level. It involves “a composite HPS'' for 24x7 wide-area
surveillance through more advanced
mobile nets, intrusion detection sonars,
infra-red cameras, electro-optical, motion
sensors and radars. “Divers can now be armed with closed- circuit re-breather systems, which do not
cause bubbles...that makes it all the more
difficult to detect them,'' said a source. “The composite HPS is to ensure that even a small cut in the nets or some other
breach sets off alarms for responders to
react in time and defuse the threat,'' he
added. Lessons have also been learnt from the
way al-Qaida used a small explosive-laden
craft to attack American destroyer USS
Cole, which killed 17 sailors and injured
dozens more, while it was harboured in
the Yemeni port of Aden in October 2000. As part of the overall harbour security
plan, the Navy will also procure 16 new
coastal anti-submarine vessels which can
operate outside harbours to keep enemy
submarines at bay. Navy's new specialized Sagar Prahari Bal
(SPB), one of the measures cleared after
the 26/11 marine jihadis exposed gaping
holes in India's coastal security, has now
also made a beginning towards
protecting naval assets, bases and harbours on both west and east coasts. The first lot of the 15 fast-interception
craft (FICs), which can effectively patrol
almost up to 200 nautical miles, for SPB
were delivered by French shipyard
Chantier Naval Couach recently. These boats are in addition to the 80 FICs
approved at a cost of over Rs 320 crore for
the proposed 1,000-strong SPB, the
deliveries of which will begin by
2012-2013. Sources said Phase-I of the critical coastal
surveillance network will also be up and
running soon. It includes 46 stations, with
coastal radars, cameras, AIS (automatic
identification systems) and other sensors
mounted atop old lighthouses to dynamically locate and track vessels.
Phase-II, with 56 additional stations, is to
follow thereafter.

 

[angeldemon_007]

Good job....i hope these projects are given priority especially after Mehran attack.....

 

[Kyusuibu Honbu]

I wonder if we regular drills to prevent a Mehran type attack.

 

[Abingdonboy]

Good- learning from others mistakes and being proactive.