When President Droupadi Murmu unveiled one of the Indian Navy’s most modern frigates, INS Vindhyagiri, in Kolkata on Thursday it marked the penultimate outcome of a bigger fleet expansion plan ~ Project-17 Alpha. Under its aegis, India aims to build seven advanced Nilgiri class stealth frigates; INS Vindhyagiri is the sixth in that series. The vessel has been designed using special materials to be less visible to adversaries. It can clock high speeds, is equipped with top-of-the-line radars to detect distant threats, and is armed with powerful missiles. The fact that media reports indicate INS Vindhyagiri has a significant Made-in-India content, with nearly 75 per cent of its components sourced from domestic micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), makes it a truly welcome addition to the Indian Navy given New Delhi’s desire to retain its strategic autonomy in times of supply chain friendshoring and near-shoring among major powers.

The induction of sophisticated warships and submarines is now essential for India to play its role in both the Indian Ocean and the larger Indo-Pacific region. While China enjoys the geographical advantage of proximity to battle theatres in the most plausible conflict scenarios with the USA ~ Taiwan and the South China Sea ~ which would most likely neutralise many US military strengths, geography is on India’s side in the case of the Sino-Indian maritime posture. Although China’s ability to project power to more distant locations is comparatively limited, its reach is growing, and this can be observed not just in its longstanding ‘string of pearls’ strategy to contain India but in Beijing’s recent attempt to forge ever closer ties with the junta in Myanmar. Reports persist of the People’s Liberation Army having set up a listening post, at the very least, if not a dual-use infrastructure in Myanmar’s Coco Islands which lie very close to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. New Delhi’s strategic initiative in establishing a holistic military base on Great Nicobar Island, as the country’s leading strategist Rear Admiral Raja Menon has explained in his seminal writings, ought to be built upon to create an offensive oceanic strategy including upping air-force deployments that put pressure on Chinese oil supplies via Indian Ocean lines that account for over 65 per cent of its oil imports. This is not in any way to advocate a war, limited or otherwise, but to offset the disadvantage of a two-front scenario when it comes to India’s land borders with China and its proxy Pakistan in play. More importantly, it implies that New Delhi has the option of imposing punitive costs on China if Beijing’s hawkish stand on India translates into a conflict on the Line of Actual Control. INS Vindhyagiri and the other warships to be inducted into the Indian Navy are steps in the right direction. With a top speed of 28 knots and a powerful armoury, the Vindhyagiri, like the other five stealth frigates in operation, packs quite a punch.