All warships, submarines being built in India: Navy Chief

Bengaluru, Jan 10: The Chief of Naval Staff Admiral R K Dhowan said on Saturday that the Indian Navy has become a Builders' Navy from a Buyers' Navy. "Not a single ship or a submarine is on order any more abroad. Future warships will be built in India," he said during the Second Admiral R L Pereira Memorial Lecture in city.

"In Navy we believe that every ship has a soul. Every ship reflects the personality of the captain. Salt in our blood, sweat and tears same as the salt in the sea," Admiral Dhowan said. He termed Admiral Pereira as a great leader and charismatic person.

Admiral Pereira was India's 9th Navy Chief and served from 1979 to 1982. The talk was organized by the Navy Foundation, Bengaluru Chapter in association with Bharat Electronics Ltd.

Maritime patrol stepped up

The Navy Chief said that the maritime patrol along India's coastline has been stepped up to ward-off any possible threats. Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the 2nd Admiral R L Pereira Memorial Lecture in city, the Admiral said India's maritime interests will be backed by ‘24x7 surveillance' by the Indian Navy.

"As part of the increased security measures in the last few months, we have deployed warships and UAVs," the Navy Chief said. He refused to comment on the ongoing sea trials by INS Arihant.

Navy Chief pats NLCA team

Admiral Dhowan met with the Naval LCA team from Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and congratulated them for the recent successful NP-1 trials in Goa. The NLCA had its maiden flight from the Shore-Based Test Facility (SBTF) in Goa, thereby crossing a critical milestone.

The Navy Chief also interacted with Cmde C D Balaji (Retd) Project Director LCA (Navy) and Commodore Jaideep Maolankar, the pilot who undertook the historic ski-jump take-off from SBTF. Later speaking to OneIndia, Cmde Balaji (Retd) said that the second prototype of NLCA (NP-2) will soon have its maiden flight.

"We are done with most of the tests barring a few. We are hopeful that the NP-2 will have its first flight within a weeks' time," Cmde Balaji (Retd) told OneIndia.

DRDO adds more teeth to Tejas

In a related development, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said on Saturday that an advanced electronic warfare suite (EW suite) developed by Bengaluru-based Defence Avionics Research Establishment (DARE), was flown on Tejas for the first time.

DRDO spokesperson Ravi Gupta said that the Tejas PV1, on which the EW suite was fitted, was also equipped with a jammer. "It gives the pilot an additional capability of nullifying the effect of detected radar threat by appropriate mode of jamming," he said.

DRDO chief Dr Avinash Chander said that the warfare suite added an important capability to Tejas. DRDO claimed that Tejas is the first fighter aircraft of India fitted with a radar warner and jammer equipment.

(The writer is a seasoned aerospace and defence journalist in India. He is the Consultant Editor (Defence) with OneIndia. He tweets @writetake.)