Bharat Forge In Missile Making, PLA exercising opposite Ladakh, Navy 30 Year Submarine Plan

Bharat Forge to assume full control of missile making subsidiary Kalyani Strategic Systems KSSL

Bharat Forge will buy the remaining 49 percent stake in Kalyani Strategic Systems KSSL at Rs 32.97 crore to make it a fully owned subsidiary, the Pune based company disclosed in filings with the stock exchanges. The promoter and promoter group entities of Bharat Forge will off load their shares in Kalyani Strategic Systems.

“Since KSSL holds industrial license under the Arms Act, 1959 read with the Arms Rules, 2016, the said acquisition of shares shall be subject to prior approval of Ministry of Home Affairs / Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade.

KSSL is the holding company for the defence vertical of Bharat Forge Group. This acquisition shall result in making it the wholly owned subsidiary of Bharat Forge which shall enable it to be eligible for participating in various defence programs.

KSSL is engaged in the field of developing, deploying defence electronics, systems development, system integration for defence products and components.

KSSL and Israeli defence technology company Rafael Advanced Systems are in a $100 million joint venture order to supply 1,000 Barak 8 MRSAM missiles kits to state run Bharat Dynamics.

PLA exercising in its depth areas opposite Ladakh, Indian forces watching closely

More than a year after the Chinese army displayed aggression on the northern front, the People’s Liberation Army is carrying out an exercise in their depth areas near the Eastern Ladakh sector. The Indian armed forces are also fully alert this year despite the pandemic and keeping a close watch on all these movements of the Chinese forces there.

The Chinese have been coming to these areas for many years where they hold their exercises in summer time. Last year also, they had come to these areas in the garb of exercises and diverted from here towards Eastern Ladakh aggressively.

The Chinese troops are well within their traditional areas with distances at some places ranging from 100 kms and beyond, they said. The development is important as the two sides are still discussing issues related to existing friction points including hot springs and Gogra heights after the mutual withdrawal of troops from the Pangong lake area by both sides.

The Indian side has also seen summer deployment of troops at forward locations in eastern Ladakh and other sectors.

The forces deployed by the Indian side in Ladakh include the Indo Tibetan Border Police, Indian Air Force, and Indian Army which is now at the forward most locations in the sector.

The Chinese after diverting from their traditional exercise areas had come to the eastern front and the two sides have been engaged in a military standoff since then.

There was hope that the Chinese would go back to their original locations but they have remained at forward locations since then. The Chinese have also been seen doing construction of bunkers in their territory and have been working to fortify their structures.

India has also fortified its positions and prepared its troops for a long haul there as deployments of additional forces and rotations have been going on.

Both Indian and Chinese Armies have a large number of troops deployed at the border since last year. The formations of Mathura based One Strike Corps have also been reoriented towards the Northern borders while one of its Armoured formations would continue to be with it.

The deployment of formations and troops in the Sugar sector, Central sector, and the northeastern borders have also been strengthened. Due to the Indian tactical operations along the southern bank of Pangong Tso, the Indian Army managed to secure disengagement from the Finger area, the two sides are continuing to hold talks for further disengagement and de-escalation from other friction points in the area.

India is demanding disengagement at the Gogra, Hot Springs, and Depsang plains area by the Chinese Army. The Chinese have been maintaining the presence of their long range air defence batteries including the HQ 9 which can hit targets at over 200 kms ever since the stand-off started along with their fighter nets at Hotan, Ngari Gunsa and Kashgar. India has also ensured that its guard remains up in view of the Chinese posturing and maintained a large number of troops in these areas along with frequent deployment of frontline aircraft such as the Rafale fighter jets there.

NAVY SEEKS AMENDMENT TO 30 YEAR SUBMARINE PLAN, WANTS SIX NUCLEAR BOATS

In the backdrop of rapidly expanding Chinese Navy, the Indian Navy wants six SSNs to replace diesel powered conventional attack submarines as Indo-Pacific has emerged as the new theatre.

The Indian Navy has approached the Narendra Modi government for approval to make changes in the Cabinet Committee of Security approved 30 year submarine building plan by replacing six conventional attack vessels with nuclear powered platforms in the context of changing strategic scenario in Indo-Pacific.

 The 30 year submarine plan was approved by Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in July 1999 for induction of 24 diesel attack submarines. As of now, the Indian Navy has 12 ageing conventional attack submarines plus three new Kalvari class submarines, first of which was commissioned in December 2017 as part of the 23,652 crore  rupees project approved way back in 2005.

 It is understood that the Navy has sought the Cabinet approval to allow it new submarine force levels of 18 conventional diesel attack submarines including those with air independent propulsion and six nuclear attack submarines or SSNs. This change has been sought keeping in mind the rapid increase of nuclear submarine arsenal by People’s Liberation Army Navy and to protect the Indo Pacific from future domination by the adversary.

As of now, the India has one Akula class submarine INS Chakra on lease from Russian Federation and one ballistic missile firing submarine INS Arighat. The two are under the Strategic Forces Command. All the ballistic missile firing submarines also called SSBNs are outside the purview of Indian Navy and with Strategic Forces Command.

While the Indian Navy wanted six more AIP equipped diesel submarines to be added to complete the 30 year submarine force levels,

The national security planners convinced the Admirals that nuclear attack submarine is a much more potent platform with the capacity to stay below surface for months and only surface for crew change and logistics.

The equatorial waters of Indian Ocean make submarines a very potent weapon due to temperature differences on surface and below water. This causes total internal reflection due to changes in medium and makes submarines in equatorial waters the most difficult to detect. It is due to this phenomenon that the SSNs will act as a deterrent for both sea access and sea denial to the adversary.