India to Unveil First Warship to Deter Chinese Submarines

India will unveil its first home-built anti-submarine warship tomorrow in a move to deter China from conducting underwater patrols near its shores.

 

Defense Minister Arun Jaitley will commission the 3,300-ton INS Kamorta at the southeastern Vishakapatnam port. The move comes a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced the largest indigenously built guided-missile destroyer and vowed to bolster the country’s defenses so “no one dares to cast an evil glance at India.”

 

India is playing catch-up to China, which built 20 such warships in the past two years and sent a nuclear submarine to the Indian Ocean in December for a two-month anti-piracy patrol. The waters are home to shipping lanes carrying about 80 percent of the world’s seaborne oil, mostly headed to China and Japan.

 

“As China grows into a naval, maritime power, it will be more and more active in the Indian Ocean,” Taylor Fravel, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology who studies China’s ties with its neighbors, said by phone. “Of course, it will not be due to some hostility or targeted at India, but because of its economic interests in the Indian Ocean, as a lot of trade passes through. Such a presence will certainly raise questions in India, but it need not necessarily be a cause of major conflict.”

 

 

Warship Plans

 

India has lacked anti-submarine corvettes in its 135-warship fleet for more than a decade now, with the decommissioning of the last of the 10-ship Petya-class of 1960s-vintage Soviet corvettes in December 2003. It plans to build 42 more warships, including three more anti-submarine corvettes, over the next decade, according to Rear Admiral A.B. Singh, an Indian navy official.

 

About 90 percent of Kamorta’s components are local, with the hull developed by Steel Authority of India Ltd., medium-range guns by Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. and torpedo launchers by Larsen & Toubro Ltd, India’s largest engineering company. The ship is two years behind schedule, according to Commodore B.B. Nagpal, the navy’s principal director for naval design.

 

“It’s a beef up of the Indian Navy’s anti-submarine warfare capabilities against Chinese submarines,” Rear Admiral Raja Menon, a retired Indian official, said by phone, referring to the Kamorta, which is named after an Indian island that was a convict settlement in the 1800s.

 

Even so, he said, “Indian warship building is not comparable to an aggressively modernizing Chinese navy. There is no way we can match China’s efforts.”

 

China Surge

 

China has built 20 Jiangdao-class anti-submarine corvettes since February 2013, when it unveiled the first one. At least 10 more will join the Chinese naval service in the coming months, according to data from IHS Jane’s.

 

China’s Jiangdao-class anti-submarine ships are about half the size of the Kamorta and designed to operate in shallow water, said Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha, a retired Indian navy officer. The Indian ship can store helicopters on board and possesses surface warfare and air defense capabilities, he said.

Jaitley, who’s also India’s finance minister, eased rules for foreign investment in the nation’s defense sector and raised spending 12 percent in the current fiscal year to help modernize the armed forces.

 

China spent $188 billion on defense in 2013, about four times more than India, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

 

Energy Needs

 

China has at least 52 submarines in its fleet, including three nuclear-missile vessels and three operating on nuclear power, the U.S. Congressional Research Service said in July, citing Jane’s Fighting Ships 2013-2014 and previous editions. India has a fleet of 14 diesel-electric submarines and a Russian-origin nuclear-powered submarine, according to the Indian Navy.

 

Chinese warships voyaged to the Gulf of Aden for the first time to join anti-piracy patrols in December 2008, two months after India deployed its warships in that role, and have since maintained a presence there. About half of China’s oil imports pass through the Strait of Hormuz and three-quarters of Japan’s, according to data from the Observer Research Foundation.

 

China’s growth means its future energy needs can be met only by supplies from the Gulf region, Africa and North America, according to a 2010 study from the U.S. Defense Department. Such supply points will keep China reliant on maritime transport even as it seeks to develop pipelines to avoid sensitive sea routes such as the Strait of Malacca, it said.

 

China considers buying four Russian Amur-Class AIP submarines

China reportedly signed two military sale frameworks with Moscow, of which Russia will jointly build four Amur-Class AIP submarines with China and sell them to the country while China will buy 24 Su-35 fighters from Russia, reports Sina's military news portal.

 

It is the first major military procurement China has made with Russia in 10 years, said the report. China needs submarines to counter threats from India's fleet and build a fleet to resist America's influence, said the Voice of Russia, the Russian government's international radio broadcasting service. A manager for a Russian national defense export company said Moscow and Beijing have been negotiating over submarine technologies. China has not revealed how many submarines it wants to buy and has not scheduled to sign a supply contract.

 

It is natural for India and China to show interest in Russia's Amur-Class submarines, said a retired Russian Navy general named Sivkov. The submarine is superior to the export version of China's 877 submarine and China would want the Amur-Class vessel since India has them. The Russian submarine can also effectively fight against American submarines and destroy Los Angeles and Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines from long distances. Since it produces little noise underwater, American submarines cannot detect the its presence. The characteristic allow the submarine to make fire warning shots or destroy enemy ships effectively during real battles.

 

Although the Amur-Class submarine can attack multiple targets on land, it cannot carry an anti-guided missile system. China does not own any submarine-based anti-missile systems as of now.

 

India's defense ministry made emergency orders over concerns of the country's declining defense capabilities. India has skipped the bidding process and ordered two diesel-electric Amur-Class submarines 677 from Russia to enhance its sea combat capabilities.

 

Currently China owns 60-plus submarines while India has 14 with a leased Russian-made nuclear-powered submarine Nerpa since 2012. The vessel is superior to Chinese submarines since it produces far less noise, said Russian experts. He believes China will not wage a war against India now even though the Chinese fleet has greater combat power than India's. China considers its fleet as a force against America and does not feel threatened by India.

China says 2014 military budget to rise 12.2 percent

China will increase military spending by 12.2 percent this year to 808.23 billion yuan, the government said on Wednesday, partly to beef up coastal and air defences and to develop more high-tech weapons.
 

The government announced its spending plan for the 2.3 million-strong People's Liberation Army (PLA) at the opening of parliament's annual meeting. The increase builds on a nearly unbroken run of double-digit hikes in the defence budget for the past two decades.
 

"We will comprehensively enhance the revolutionary nature of the Chinese armed forces, further modernise them and upgrade their performance, and continue to raise their deterrence and combat capabilities in the information age," Premier Li Keqiang told the largely rubber-stamp legislature.
 

Li added that China would "strengthen research on national defence and the development of new- and high-technology weapons and equipment" and "enhance border, coastal and air defences".
 

China's military spending is now second only to that of the United States, allowing Beijing to create a modern force that is projecting power deep into the disputed waters of the East and South China Seas.

Much military spending takes place outside the budget, however, and many experts estimate real outlays are closer to $200 billion. The U.S. Defense Department's base budget for fiscal 2014 is $526.8 billion.

At a time when Washington has stepped up its military presence in the region as part of a strategic "pivot" toward Asia, China is building new submarines, surface ships and anti-ship ballistic missiles, and has tested emerging technology aimed at destroying missiles in mid-air.

It carried out the first test flight of a stealth fighter jet in 2011 and has put a refurbished aircraft carrier to sea.

Nevertheless, experts say it could be decades before China's military is a match for America's armed forces.

David Helvey, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, told a U.S. Senate committee hearing on Tuesday that the Pentagon was seeking to build "healthy" ties with China's military, but said Beijing needed to be more transparent about its armed forces buildup.

"We remain concerned about a lack of transparency regarding China's growing military and its increasingly assertive behaviour in the maritime domain," Helvey said.

China has repeatedly said the world has nothing to fear from its military spending, which it says is needed for legitimate defensive purposes.

Its neighbours, however, have become increasingly nervous about Beijing's expanding military, and the latest double-digit rise could reinforce disquiet in the region.

China and Japan have locked horns over uninhabited rocky islands each claims in the East China Sea.

Beijing also claims 90 percent of the 3.5 million sq km (1.35 million sq mile) South China Sea, which is believed to be rich in oil and gas. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan claim parts of those waters.

The United States last month said it was concerned that China's maritime claims in the South China Sea were an effort to gain creeping control of oceans in the Asia-Pacific region.

News Politics PLA's Type 99 tank can be equipped with laser weapons: Russian media

The Type 99 main battle tank of the People's Liberation Army can be equipped with advanced weapon systems such as high-speed armour piercing shell and laser sensor damage weapons, according to the Independent Military Review, a Russian military magazine.

The Type 99's 125mm smoothbore tank guns are similar to those used by the Russian-built T-72M main battle tank, but the Chinese tank encompasses more technology from Israel, the report said. Based on the M711 shell, a 125mm armor piercing, fin stabilized, discarding sabot-tracer imported from Israel, China has developed its own armour piercing shell which can travel even faster in speed.

The Israeli M711 shell can travel 1,700 meters per second with 600mm of armor penetration, while China's new high-speed armour piercing shell is capable of traveling 1,780mm per second, increasing its armor penetration to 850mm. The country's new armour piercing shell makes the 25mm smoothbore tank gun of Type 99 main battle tank 30% more powerful than the German Rheinmetall 120mm tank gun designed for the M1A1 main battle tank of the United States.

Meanwhile, China's latest laser sensor damage weapon can be considered a significant threat to potential adversaries, according to the Independent Military Review. It can be used to destroy the optical instrument of an enemy tank and it is also capable of blinding the crew of enemy tank as well. Type 99 is currently the only main battle tank in the world that can be equipped with such a weapon system, the report added.

Two new-type frigates of PLA Hong Kong Garrison commissioned

The Hong Kong Garrison of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) held the commissioning, naming and flag-granting ceremony for the Huizhou frigate and the Qinzhou frigate at 10:00 on the morning of July 1, 2013 at the Stonecutters Island naval port in Hong Kong, marking that the two new-type frigates are formally commissioned.

The newly-commissioned Huizhou frigate and the Qinzhou frigate with the hull numbers of 596 and 597 respectively are China's independently designed, developed and produced new-generation light guided-missile frigate integrated with many types of weapons and equipment, possessing good stealth performance and strong electromagnetic compatibility, according to the briefing.

The two frigates will be mainly responsible for tasks including patrolling, defense, naval escort and operation against sea targets after their commissioning. In addition, they will gradually replace the guided-missile escort boats now in service, becoming the main combat equipment of the PLA Hong Kong Garrison for maritime defense.

After the ceremony, the two frigates were open to the Hong Kong residents for the first time and a total of 13,000 Hong Kong residents boarded the frigates for visit.