Smells like Asian Nato

Sept. 7: The five-nation Malabar war games are being conducted on rules and procedures compliant with the requirements of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, Indian naval and air force officers disclosed in interviews aboard the aircraft carrier today.

The Malabar 07-02 war games, now into the fourth day, have raised concerns in Beijing of an emerging “Asian Nato”. But Vice-Admiral William Douglas Crowder, commander of the US Seventh fleet, insisted this was not gunboat diplomacy directed against China but an opportunity to share experiences in a multi-threat scenario.

The acceptance by India of the standard operating procedures (SOPs) proposed by the US in the lead-up to the exercise meant that the navies could draw up “gameplans” to exploit most skill-sets.

For the first time, manoeuvres like air-to-air refuelling have been possible with US aircraft, officers from Indian ships and from an air force maritime strike squadron said. They were on board the USS Kitty Hawk to observe the arrested landings and catapult shots that launch and recover the US Navy’s aircraft.

“The common procedures for this exercise were worked out in four initial planning conferences between the participants. There are so many navies involved that it was important to ensure that the glitches be smoothened out,” an officer explained.

The evolution and implementation of the Nato-based SOPs are not sudden but are a consequence of the 13 episodes of the Malabar series of exercises between the US and Indian navies. The exchanges intensified over the last five years.

The current war games are the second this year but the first in Indian waters involving 24 ships, a nuclear submarine and more than 200 aircraft from five navies.

The SOPs could signal a paradigm shift for the Indian armed forces that have so far evolved their own practices.

Those rules were traditionally influenced by the erstwhile Soviet Russia-led Warsaw Pact. It was logical because it came with the Russian hardware that has equipped the Indian army, navy and air force for decades.

Nato is essentially a military alliance led by the US against the erstwhile Soviet Russia-led Warsaw Pact. Since the end of the Cold War around 1991, Nato has repositioned itself as a coalition in America’s “global war against terror” and has itself shown eagerness to work with Indian forces.

In the current exercise — Malabar 07-02 — those efforts have begun to mature.

The common procedures meant that the participants were able to engage one another despite differing practices.

An example: in joint sorties worked out on the Nato-prescribed SOP for this exercise, US Navy F/A-18 Superhornets shooting off this carrier and also from the USS Nimitz refuelled Indian Naval Sea Harrier aircraft that flew out of India’s flagship, the INS Viraat. Between September 4 and today, there have been 20 such sorties.

“I think it was remarkable to see our Superhornets refuel the (Indian) Sea Harriers,” said Crowder. “We did not charge for the fuel, though,” he joked. Just after he finished speaking, Indian Harriers and US Superhornets overflew the Kitty Hawk in a victory (V) formation.

Crowder this morning handed over tactical command of the exercise to Vice-Admiral R.P. Suthan, India’s flag officer in charge of the Vizag-headquartered Eastern Naval Command.

The other fleet commanders on board are Vice-Admiral Yoji Koda, the commander-in-chief of Japan’s self defence fleet, and Vice-Admiral Nigel Coates of the Royal Australian Navy.

The effect of the common SOPs has been extended to other sectors of the exercise as well – in communications, anti-submarine warfare drills and in offensive and defence air manoeuvres.

In other scenarios, Superhornets from the Kitty Hawk and the Nimitz met at an RV – rendezvous point – to escort Jaguar maritime strike aircraft flying out of Car Nicobar to simulate an “attack” on the Viraat.

They were tasked to beat through the “Combat Air Patrol” of the Viraat-based Sea Harriers. Asked if the “attack” was successful, an officer said: “They overflew the Viraat.”

Similarly, the Nimitz and the Kitty Hawk were also designated as “targets”. Indian Sea Harriers, far behind in technology when compared to the Superhornets, tried to engage the US naval aircraft in close combat. The US aircraft relied mostly on “BV” (Beyond Visual Range) missiles and were guided by communication from the E2C Hawkeyes, the airborne early warning and control systems with distinctive rotating domes.

“We managed to dodge, too,” the officer said “and overflew the Kitty Hawk”.

(The USS Nimitz has completed its deployment for this exercise and is now headed to the Persian Gulf. It left the exercise area at 1 am on Friday).

The designated exercise area is 150 nautical miles by 200 nautical miles and the airspace above it. This morning, the Kitty Hawk, where the fleet commanders had gathered, was sailing about 100 nautical miles west of Port Blair.

The US allowed the use of its Centrix system, a platform for battlegroup-networking that facilitates exchange of sound, pictures and data among participating ships, to the Indian Navy.

This is not so new for Australia and Japan which have been in a military alliance with the US, and not even for the Singaporean navy that believes in the virtues of working along with a military coalition.

Behind banter, an Indian Ocean axis

SUJAN DUTTA

Port Blair, Sept. 6: The sharp voice rang out across the verandah that overlooks Minnie Bay through which vessels sail to dock in Port Blair’s military and civilian harbours: “Hey Masakatsu, you here too?”

Masakatsu is the first name of the Japanese defence attaché in New Delhi. The Singaporean defence attaché was so pleased to see him that he could barely conceal his delight. They have bumped into each other on a terrace of the Fortune Bay Island Hotel that offers a view so pleasing that it is depicted on the Indian 20-rupee currency note.

Soon, they are joined by the Australian defence attaché who stops over but has to excuse himself because he is keeping a fleet commander company over breakfast.

Among the officials most in demand are an Indian Navy captain, who tells the international gathering that there’s a cocktail overdue, and an American officer who is planning airlifts to warships in the Bay of Bengal.

With a wink, the Australian asks the Singaporean if his wife was around. “Is that so? I didn’t know I could bring her along.”

The Singaporean was surprised, and then broke into a wide smile while pulling a punch at the Aussie. That was just a joke.

But there is nothing funny about this venue for an international meet of navies.

They are all here on serious business, the business of building an Indian Ocean Navy, for that is what Malabar 07-02 is likely to shape into in future years.

Speculation centres around it maturing into a coalition that will take on China, which has a listening post on the Cocos Islands, about 40 nautical miles north of here.

But for the assembled military personnel here, it is only the task-at-hand that matters. The banter is only a manifestation of the friendships that navies brought together here by America and India are striking.

Overhead, Chetak helicopters and Dornier aircraft of the Indian Navy are circling to land. Many of the foreign naval personnel are not familiar with these machines. An Indian naval officer obliges by identifying them.

Histories fade as the navies of five countries – the US, Australia, Japan, Singapore and India — with diverse pasts meet on the high seas between here and Vishakhapatnam.

What started as war games on the Malabar coast in the Arabian Sea with the Americans 13 years ago has now grown into a coalition off the Coromandel Coast in the Bay of Bengal. But the name of the war games has remained unchanged.

The Malabar on the Coromandel today is a hotly debated and disputed with the Left’s protest rallies registered in almost every discussion here. But nobody wants to comment on the record. They are more comfortable discussing military matters.

Though Malabar 07-02 are the biggest international exercise and the most complex war games that any wing of the Indian military has held, it is reluctant to speak about what is going into it.

The defence ministry is right now, even as the Malabar war games are on, more keen that attention shifts to the drills with Russia, that are to be held later this month in which contingents of the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force are involved. Next month, the India army will hold basic exercises with China that rank very low in a scale of complexity.

Away from the politics of the war games – that hover mostly around the China factor -- the discussions deal with operational matters. Scenarios for the Malabar 07-02 cover battles that could be fought in three dimensions: underwater, on the surface and in the air.

Tomorrow, the fleet commanders of the five countries will meet onboard the USS Kitty Hawk, the lead ship of the US Pacific Command’s Seventh Fleet.

The Seventh Fleet commander, Admiral Doug Crowder, arrived here this afternoon and preferred to fly into the Kitty Hawk almost immediately afterwards, instead of staying on in Port Blair for an evening cocktail in a shady cove that the Indian Navy had planned for him.

Participants in the wargames are apparently unconcerned on all the talk of this being a nascent anti-China coalition. That, again, to warriors, is a political construct. As naval personnel sailing in warships, diving in submarines and/or shooting off flight decks, they are concerned merely with the immediate task in hand and acting on orders.

What they do cherish, however, is the new friendships that they strike. That is a feature of navies probably the world over. Only on the rare instance do naval meets such as this one become political issues. As an Australian officer put it: “Who is to keep track of how many times we meet and have fun in international waters?”

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070907/asp/nation/story_8287411.asp

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