CNS at Navy Day Press Conference
On the sidelines of the Navy Day press conference in New Delhi, Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Nirmal Verma spoke to Jayant Baranwal, Editor-in-Chief, SP’s on various Indian Navy projects. “Of the 49 Indian Navy ships under construction, 45 of them are being built in the Indian shipyards. Pipavav has been awarded a contract to built five offshore patrol vessels (OPV).” Verma said that it was his last Navy Day address as CNS. On being asked how fulfilling was his tenure, he said that “he was quite satisfied”.
The Chief informed that the Vikramaditya project is on time and discussions on the design aspect of the P8-I have already been done.
On the stand of the Indian Navy versus Chinese Navy, the Navy Chief said, “At any point of time we take stock of the development of force level. It is an ongoing process and mid-course corrections are applied from time to time.” On the medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) programme, he said that it is at present an Indian Air Force programme and today Navy is looking forward to the induction of MiG-29k and the light combat aircraft (Navy).
On being asked about his views on the appointment of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), the Chief said that he is not competent to answer as it is with the political leaders to decide. However, later during the day, he said that it is a “good idea”.
“Year 2012 will be the year of ex-servicemen,” he said. On being asked to elaborate further, he added that a Navy Regimental System will be set up which will reach out to ex-servicemen living in the remotest corner of the country. A series of initiatives will be announced by January 2012. “No one should feel helpless after retirement,” he said and added that the Navy Regimental System will help resolve all kinds of problems faced by ex-servicemen . has been toying with the concept of a nuclear triad since the 1980s when it leased a Charlie class nuclear powered cruise missile submarine from 1988 to 1991 from Russia, to acquire experience in nuclear powered submarines. It was named INS Chakra. India then contracted to lease another nuclear powered Akula-II class submarine from Russia, as all the personnel trained on INS Chakra would have retired. This will be also be named INS Chakra and will come without any armament, and will be used for training as a precursor to the commissioning of Arihant. The leased Russian nuclear submarine is likely to arrive in India by early 2012, after a three-year delay. It was to be delivered on a 10-year lease for about $920 million (`4,600 crore) by 2009, but a fire in the submarine that killed 20 sailors during trials in 2008, has contributed to the delay. However, during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Moscow in December, he was assured by the Russians that the submarine is all ready to set sail for India. Unconfirmed media reports state that India may be leasing two submarines with an option of buying them later and arming them in India to circum- spect the Missile Technology Control Regime.
India launched its Advanced Technology Vehicle (ATV) programme in 1974 and it has taken about three decades to show some results. The main hurdle was the sensitive nuclear technology involved which is very difficult to get from abroad and the high cost of such ventures. Russia has been of great help including their earlier leasing of a nuclear powered submarine, but with sanctions in place after the 1998 nuclear tests, India had to do it all alone. Finally, India launched its first nuclear powered submarine, INS Arihant, on July 26, 2009, which is a 6,000-tonne submarine with a length of
The Indian Navy urgently needs multi-role helicopters (MRH) to replace its ageing Sea King fleet