Beneath the waves

There is every possibility that an Indian submarine was seeking intelligence close to our national territorial waters

Land forces tend to make the headlines nationally, but the Pakistan Navy is no less engaged with the protection of our borders and territories. The surfacing of the report that an Indian Navy submarine had been detected close to our national territorial waters and escorted away has given a rare insight into naval operations. Details are few but some tenable assumptions may be made based on open-source information about the naval assets of Pakistan and India, respectively. Submarines have long been used to gather intelligence as well as place agents and saboteurs and whilst there is no suggestion that the Indian submarine was engaged in the latter there is every possibility that it was seeking intelligence. That intelligence may be derived from a deliberate testing of the preparedness of our own anti-submarine warfare capacities and in this instance they appear to be effective.

Contrary to popular belief, submarines do not spend their entire lives underwater unless they are of the nuclear powered type. Conventional submarines are powered by a mix of diesel and electric engines and they need to come up for air to recharge their batteries. It is most likely that this was how the vessel was detected, by naval air assets that picked up the snorkel and then vectored Pakistan surface units to intercept it. The IFF receptors on the submarine would quickly detect that it had been found and the Pakistan Navy then escorted it away. It was not attacked and the submarine made no reported attempt to attack our own assets.

In all likelihood this is not an isolated incident. The Indian submarine service will probe Pakistan’s defences at sea regularly and the Pakistan navy is equal and beyond to the task of defending our sea boundaries. None of this is going to make the headlines and for the navy this is a routine operation. It does however highlight the necessity to maintain a strong and well-equipped modern navy with the capacity to meet all potential and actual threats — and India is the only direction from which a naval threat may come. That is going to do nothing other than continue into a long future.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2016.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.