Indian Navy on alert, deploys nuclear submarines, warships post Pulwama attack

New Delhi, Mar 17: Indian Navy said it had deployed its frontline warships, including nuclear submarines and aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya, near the Pakistan waters in Arabian Sea which forced the Pakistan Navy to remain close to its coastline during India-Pakistan tensions.

Navy said that the overwhelming superiority of the Indian Navy in all three dimensions forced Pakistan Navy to remain deployed close to Makran coast and not venture out in the open sea.

India had deployed the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya and its battle group warships along with fighter aircraft in the Northern Arabian Sea as the tensions between India and Pakistan escalated.

The major combat units of the Indian Navy including the Carrier Battle Group with INS Vikramaditya, nuclear submarines and scores of other ships, submarines and aircraft swiftly transited from exercise to operational deployment mode as tensions between India and Pakistan escalated.

''Nuclear submarines along with other assets were also used for operational deployment by the Navy during the escalating tensions with Pakistan. Indigenous INS Arihant and INS Chakra are the only two nuclear-powered submarines in the Indian inventory,'' it said.

India's largest naval war game - the Theatre-Level Operational Readiness Exercise (TROPEX) - has been put on pause given the prevailing situation, and is expected to resume only after the tensions cool. The exercise had commenced 07 Jan 19 and was planned to be terminated by 10 Mar 19. However, the JEM sponsored terrorist attack on the CRPF convoy in Pulwama on 14 Feb 19 led to the rapid redeployment of the Indian Navy for Operations in North Arabian sea.

As part of the exercise - which was originally planned to be concluded in early March - over 70 warships, besides combat aircraft and support vessels, are at sea, fully armed and prepared for operations.