India activates listening post on foreign soil: radars in Madagascar

[Sam Dhanraj]

India activates first listening post on foreign soil: radars in Madagascar



India has activated its first listening post on foreign soil that will keep an eye on ship movements in the Indian Ocean. A key monitoring station in northern Madagascar, complete with radars and surveillance gear to intercept maritime communication, was quietly made operational earlier this month as part of Indian Navy’s strategy to protect the country’s sea lanes of commerce.

The monitoring station, under construction since last year when India took on a lease from Antananarivo, will link up with similar naval facilities in Kochi and Mumbai to gather intelligence on foreign navies operating in the region. “A naval asset with limited anchoring facilities has been activated. It will facilitate possible manoeuvres by the navy in the region,” a ministry official said.

While the station will also monitor piracy and terrorist activities, its primary aim is to counter the growing Chinese influence in the Indian Ocean Region. The station is India’s first in southern Indian Ocean that is gaining importance due to increasing oil traffic across the Cape of Good Hope and the Mozambique Channel route preferred by super tankers.

The US already has a permanent military base with aerial assets and monitoring facilities in Diego Garcia, 1,400 nautical miles north-east of the Madagascar facility.

India is looking at developing another monitoring facility at an atoll it has leased from Mauritius in the near future. While the ministry remains silent, sources say some forward movement has recently been made on the project.

“With berthing rights in Oman and monitoring stations in Madagascar, Mauritius, Kochi and Mumbai, the navy will effectively box in the region to protect sea lanes right from Mozambique and the Cape of Good Hope to the Gulf of Oman,” an official said.

The navy has already made its presence felt along the African coast with regular warships deployments to monitor piracy and terrorist movements. India also inked an agreement with Mozambique last year to mount periodical maritime patrolling off its vast coast. In 2003, the Indian navy provided seaward protection for the African Union summit at Mozambique.

 

[Bull]

Well we say ' Look East ', but are acting on the west. Is it case where we put the right signal and turn left.

 

[blitz]

So Air base in Tajikistan. Naval base in Madagascar and Mauritius. What is the plan ? India is really spreading its reach these days.

Bull, the east is A&N command, which effectively covers the entire S E Asia.

 

[blitz]

self deleted

 

[Bull]

So Air base in Tajikistan. Naval base in Madagascar and Mauritius. What is the plan ? India is really spreading its reach these days.

Bull, the east is A&N command, which effectively covers the entire S E Asia.

i think we need to urgently require some more hardwares so that we can equip these bases decently.

 

[blitz]

A&N airbase is fully certified to handle IL-76s. India doesn't need to permanently station any assets there. Better to keep them in mainland. In case of an emergency, a full squadron of MKIs can be deployed there within hours.

 

[Bull]

A&N airbase is fully certified to handle IL-76s. India doesn't need to permanently station any assets there. Better to keep them in mainland. In case of an emergency, a full squadron of MKIs can be deployed there within hours.

I think we need to have good radars and other electronic stuff there. We also need to have atleast 100 foot soldiers there. The only thing which i see India doing to augment its capablities in these offshore bases is the purchase of Landing Ships.

 

[blitz]

Lol Bull, its a full fledged tri-services command. My guess is there are a lot more than just 100 soldiers.

 

[Bull]

Lol Bull, its a full fledged tri-services command. My guess is there are a lot more than just 100 soldiers.

I wasnt speaking about AN, but the other 2.

 

[intruder]

I think we need to have good radars and other electronic stuff there. We also need to have atleast 100 foot soldiers there. The only thing which i see India doing to augment its capablities in these offshore bases is the purchase of Landing Ships.

We are taking about division not 100 soldiers ...

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/india/anc.htm

 

[Bull]

We are taking about division not 100 soldiers ...

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/india/anc.htm

Well i was talking abt Madagascar. But still a division in AN is news to me, i wasnt aware.

 

[Sam Dhanraj]

Well we say ' Look East ', but are acting on the west. Is it case where we put the right signal and turn left.

Bull, I feel along with "Look East" policy, Indian Navy is also very much working on the 10 choke points that they identified earlier. "radars in Madagascar" is a part of handling the choke points

Quoting -Officer Commanding in Chief, Western Naval Command, Vice Admiral Sangram Singh Byce

"‘Maldives, Mauritius and Seychelles are Receiving a Lot of Attention from India’

What are the operational challenges to your fleet?

"To fully understand the operational challenges to our fleet it is important that we recognise that India is essentially a maritime nation and that our prosperity, power and prestige are inextricably linked to the oceans. The Indian Ocean encompasses about one fifth of the world’s sea area and the Indian Peninsula juts two thousand kilometres into the sea, bringing approximately 50 per cent of the Indian Ocean within a 1,000-mile arc ascribed from Indian Territory. The Indian Ocean is land locked in the north and its physical configuration is such that it provides certain ‘choke points’ for entry into this ocean. India’s dominant position in the middle of the Indian Ocean and astride some of the busiest strategic Sea Lines of Communications (SLOC) imposes on us huge operational responsibility to ensure security of both the choke points and the SLOCs so that there is free and unhindered flow of international trade."

 

[Sam Dhanraj]

The 10 choke points that the navy considers within its area of interest are:
1-Cape of Good Hope,
2-Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb,
3-Suez Canal,
4-Gulf of Oman,
5-Strait of Hormuz,
6-area around Karachi,
7-Palk Strait,
8-Strait of Malacca,
9-Sunda Strait
10-Lombok Strait.

"Regarding ‘maritime interests,’ the area has grown exponentially from the Cape of Good Hope to the Strait of Malacca and includes the Mediterranean Sea in the north. This expanse has choke points, strategic waterways and important sea-lanes of communications."

 

[Contrarian]

Well, what we actually need is MDA, which has been clearly explained by our previous CNS. What it means in reality is that we need some more equipment. We DESPERATELY need MPA's and lots of them. We need maritime UAV's and UUV's. This is the only way.

The listening station is good, but understand, this statement made by some one on WAB regarding the F/A-18's 'situational awareness' boasts:
"without stealth, you are completely aware of plane that is going to kill you"

We have the elint stations, good, but what we need are resources to convert that elint to actions on the ground.

 

[joey]

On Extending India’s Maritime Reach

The Indian Navy is increasing its engagement with the premier navies of the world. The recent joint exercises with the navies of China, U.S. and Japan and the forthcoming exercise with the Russian navy bear testimony to this fact. It has been deployed in peaceful missions in faraway Guam and Beirut. Following its “look east” foreign policy, the Far Eastern Naval Command in the Andaman and Nicobar islands has been developed into a strategic naval base increasing its eastward reach. However, India’s maritime interests span over a much larger Indian Ocean Region (IOR) from the Swahili coast to the Straits of Malacca. In this post, we would like to explore the possibility of expanding India’s naval reach in southwestern IOR in the strategic sea-lanes around the Horn of Africa.

Per recent reports in the Times of India, the Mauritius government has offered long-term lease of the Agalgela Islands to India towards infrastructure and tourism development. The islands with a 27 square mile area are located about 425 nautical miles northeast of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean and 1,700 nautical miles southwest of the Indian naval base at Kochi on the southwestern coast of the Indian peninsula. They are also approximately 960 nautical miles to the west and south of Diego Garcia, which has a significant U.S. military presence

The deputy Prime Minister of Mauritius Xavier-Luc Duval has subsequently denied the lease offer and has clarified that the offer was to seek Indian help to develop infrastructure like airfields. Given the delicate ethnic balance between the Francophone Creoles and the Indo-Mauritians, it is evident that the government is wary of opening up these islands currently habited by Creole fishing communities. The Indian government is yet to respond to this offer and any talk of staging even a token Indian military presence is too early. Nevertheless the geo-strategic importance of this real estate has stirred the imagination of strategic thinkers*.

The sea-lanes around the Horn of Africa serve as a vital route for supertankers too large for passage through the Suez Canal. Similarly, large amounts of commerce shipping between Europe and the east coast of the Americas travel to Asia by way of Cape Horn. The route is thus of great importance to India’s two chief regional rivals, Pakistan and China, and the ability to interdict traffic there is of great potential value. It is important for any aspiring naval power to possess good intelligence gathering capability in the zone of interest against pirating, terrorism and nuclear proliferation.

India has already signed a defense co-operation deal with the nearby Mozambique and has offered joint patrolling of its coast. It has friendly relations with Seychelles and Madagascar. In this context, the Agalega islands could serve as a refueling post for Indian maritime aircrafts and unmanned aerial vehicles to help identifying trouble-making ships while naval ships do the specific interdiction should there be a need. The presence of a second remote naval presence might prove to be critical if enemy combat aircraft takes down the Far Eastern Command during a potential future regional conflict.

India however has to be careful in taking into account of the sensitivities of Mauritius in her attempt to expand her westward reach. By developing the airfields into a full-fledged airport and augmenting the port infrastructure, India can help build a viable tourism industry, which will help the local economy. Indian naval presence will also make the waters safer for international maritime commerce. Like Singapore, which supports Indian patrolling in the strategic Malacca Straits, it is also in Mauritius’s security interest to have a trouble free oceanic neighborhood.

___
* Steven J Forsberg. United States Naval Institute. Proceedings. Annapolis: Mar 2007. Vol.133, Iss. 3; pg. 38.