Non-Subscriber ExtractSteady progress but no overnight success for India as it shores up coastal security |
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By Mrityunjoy Mazumdar
24 November 2009
The Indian Navy expects to have 10 Car Nicobar-class patrol vessels in service by early 2011. (Tognum)
The seaborne attacks on Mumbai on 26 November 2008 by Lashkar-e-Tayyiba terrorists and the slow, often confused, response from India's security agencies exposed serious shortcomings in the country's intelligence, command-and-control and response mechanisms.
Crucially, the attacks highlighted major weaknesses in coastal security structures: the Pakistan-based terrorists are believed to have hijacked an Indian trawler, killing its crew, before entering Mumbai – India's financial capital and home of the navy's Western Fleet – by inflatable boat.
After bitter recriminations over the lack of actionable intelligence, the Indian Navy's (IN's) Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Sureesh Mehta, said that a "systemic failure" on the part of the security and intelligence establishment had allowed the attacks to succeed. He also acknowledged that gaps existed in the country's coastal security and intelligence-sharing network.
On 28 February 2009, the Indian government unveiled plans for a comprehensive coastal security scheme and set out to fast-track the acquisition of essential equipment.
The plan envisaged the creation of a 1,000-man IN force protection group, known as the Sagar Prahari Bal (Seaward Defence Force), equipped with 80 fast interceptor craft. The commanders-in-chief (CinCs) of the IN's Western, Southern and Eastern commands were additionally designated as CinCs Coastal Defence in their respective areas. The plan also called for the creation of a Coastal Command, headed by the Director General Coast Guard, to co-ordinate the activities of central and regional (state) agencies, including waters patrolled by state-run coastal police forces.