Is the AUKUS Pact a signal to India to attack nuclear submarines? | Latest India News

Since Australia has signed a pact with the US and UK on eight nuclear-powered conventional attack submarines, or SSNs, to deter China in the Indo-Pacific, India must also reconsider its 1999 plan for conventional submarines and move quickly towards nuclear-powered submarines pass over. Surface vessels.

While India has submitted a request for information (RFI) for six new diesel attack submarines with air-independent propulsion for an extended period of time as part of Project 75I, the rapidly changing security scenario in the Indo-Pacific is calling for the Modi government to revise the plan of three SSNs on the front burner. India currently has one ballistic missile that fires a nuclear submarine, or SSBN, INS Arihant, and another, INS Arighat, which can be commissioned next year. It doesn’t have a conventional nuclear submarine, but the situation will change in 2025.

Although the French in Australia are understandably dissatisfied for unilaterally foiling the $ 50 billion deal with the Naval Group to sell 12 AIP-equipped diesel submarines for SSNs as part of the newly unveiled AUKUS-Anglo-Saxon -Build pacts, stronger response. The SSNs are limited only by the food supply and the mental framework of their crew and can patrol with access to the sea for more than 45 days. In short, Australia, which, like India and Japan, is at the end of the belligerent Chinese, may deter the powerful PLA Navy, which has a number of SSNs and SSBNs and is getting longer sea routes every day.

In this context, India’s national security planners also need to reconsider Project 75 I and Project 76, a continuation of the previous one, and move on to Project 77 or the SSN Project. With submarines taking at least a decade off the drawing board, India must prepare for a time when Chinese aircraft carriers and SSNs will patrol the Indian Ocean (IOR) region apart from other global players.

It is not that the Modi government is stuck watching the evolving security situation in the maritime dimension. With the new INS Vikrant aircraft carrier, INS Arighat SSBN, six new Kalvari-class diesel attack submarines and Vishakhapatnam-class destroyers, the Indian Navy will be a very strong force in the Indo-Pacific by 2025.

With the US ready to sell armed Predator drones, the Aegis integrated combat system and the Tomahawk cruise missiles to India, the Modi government has ample opportunity to project power in the Indo-Pacific. India’s main ally, France, stands ready to help design and build SSNs as well as upgrade the capabilities of the Indian military beyond the horizon.

Just as the US, India and Australia are focusing on the Indo-Pacific, the new Japanese leadership is also shedding its pacifist approach to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) wolf warriors. The emerging leaders of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) after Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga are conservative and nationalistic. Instead of being pushed around by Beijing, Japan is ready to team up with Quad partners to secure the Indo-Pacific.

The AUKUS pact will not remain without safety aspects for the quad partners, as there is a possibility that China will build an SSN for its customer Pakistan, citing the handover of the nuclear reactor under AUKUS to Australia. This will create greater security problems for India and other IOR countries. It is time for India to reconsider its deterrent capabilities and for the Indian Navy to think beyond Karachi.

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