India strengthens military in Persian Gulf

Kolkata, India — Indian strategic planners often talk about the country’s area of privileged interests extending from the Persian Gulf to the Strait of Malacca. The Persian Gulf in particular is of crucial importance. India sources most of its oil from the potentially unstable region, and so has been raising its military profile there.

After successful anti-pirate patrols in the Horn of Africa by the Indian Navy, it was the turn of the Indian Air Force to mark its military reach in the region. In September 2008, India conducted its first joint air force exercise with the United Arab Emirates at the Al Dhafra base in Abu Dhabi.

This year it conducted a similar joint exercise with Oman from Oct. 22-29, codenamed Eastern Bridge, at the Royal Air Force of Oman base at Thumrait. The IAF fielded six single-seat Darin-I Jaguars alongside Omani Jaguars and F-16s. It also flew two IL-78 MKI air-to-air refueler aircraft for fuelling the Jaguars en route to Oman.

The exercise, though ostensibly conceived to increase interoperability between the RAFO and the IAF, also served to underline the strategic reach of the Indian Air Force.

India and Oman are the last remaining operators of the Jaguar strike aircraft, so it was felt in both quarters that cooperation between the two air forces would allow high serviceability rates. RAFO fighter pilots in any case have been training at the IAF’s Jaguar simulator training center in Gorakhpur in India’s Uttar Pradesh state for some time now.

Cooperation is the buzzword for India’s engagement in the Gulf region, and it has painstakingly convinced the Gulf countries that its intentions in their region extend only to its legitimate economic interests and preventing acts of terrorism against its soil. This diplomacy seems to have worked, as countries like Oman now view India as a force for enhancing stability in the region.

Oman, after all, also hosts over 550,000 Indian nationals in its territory and has received major investment in the vicinity of the Thumrait airbase from Indian majors such as Larsen and Toubro, India's largest engineering and construction conglomerate, and Punj Llyod, which provides integrated design, engineering, procurement, construction and project management services in the energy and infrastructure sectors.

The Indo-Omani strategic undertaking is guided by a defense agreement signed by the two countries in 2006, which incidentally was the first of its kind signed by India with a Middle Eastern country. The agreement serves as a model for Indian defense engagement in the Persian Gulf region. As part of the agreement, Oman offered berthing facilities to Indian Navy warships patrolling the piracy-hit waters off the coast of Somalia.

Oman has also been seeking help from the Indian armed forces to set up credible supply systems for its military equipment. However, it must be said that much more progress needs to be made on this front.

Oman features on the IAF’s list of top-priority countries for defense cooperation. RAFO airbases such as Thumrait serve as refueling and maintenance points for transiting IAF aircraft. Apart from making its presence felt in the region, the IAF is also familiarizing itself with the terrain.

As the IAF vice chief, Air Marshal P.K. Barbora, told reporters a week prior to the Indo-Omani exercise, “The bilateral exercise would also be cost-effective in terms of benefit realization of operational and tactical preparedness over an unknown mixed terrain of land and desert."

Indeed, the exercise may also serve as a pathfinder to the IAF joining the Indian Navy in the anti-pirate fight. Specifically, "The IAF may be called upon to conduct aerial surveillance of the swathe of the Gulf of Aden region, where pirates are widening their area of operations fast," said Barbora.

However, the IAF is at pains to make it clear that it is not about to embark on an offensive against pirates but will essentially assist the navy to overcome speed and manpower constraints in their operations against the pirates, if called upon to do so.

It seems the IAF is keen to tell the navy that the anti-piracy fight will continue to be the navy’s show, while it will only play a supplementary role. The IAF and the Indian Navy have had tiffs in the past over the exercise of air power in the naval domain.

Almost a decade ago the navy was enraged when air headquarters proposed the induction of more land-based long-range Sukhoi flanker aircraft, backed by air-to-air refueling, as an alternative to building aircraft carriers for the purpose of providing air cover at sea.

However, at this juncture the navy will in all probability welcome the IAFs involvement, since both are undergoing development. India’s third carrier force is now 50 years old and has just undergone its fourth mid-service refit.

In any case it is absolutely important that the IAF and the navy remain committed to the mantra of “jointness” – a euphemism in the Indian military for joint operations by various wings of the Indian armed forces – if India is to become a significant player in the foreign arena in its declared zone of privileged interests.

http://www.upiasia.com/Security/2009/11/03/india_strengthens_military_in_persian_gulf/5811/