Piracy against Merchant navy ships in Indian Ocean region being tackled says Navy chief

Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral R Hari Kumar said the Indian Navy is tackling piracy in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) aggressively, and has increased deployment of warships in the area.

The Indian Navy is running two operations in the IOR and one of them is an anti-piracy operation. The anti-piracy operation has been going on since 2008 with constant deployment of herd ships to combat piracy. We have deployed about 108 ships to counter piracy till date. The presence of warships deters the pirates. Last year, we thought that piracy was almost over, but recently hijacking of an Indian vessel and Indian crew took place. We have increased the deployment and are aggressively going after them,” said the Navy chief

The Maritime Anti-Piracy Act, 2022, has strengthened the Navy’s hands and India is among the few countries that have enacted such a legislation, he said. The Anti-Piracy Act has been helpful for the Navy.

Naval chief was speaking to the media at Lonavla’s INS Shivaji after the inauguration of a transcritical CO2-based air conditioning plant built indigenously in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore.

On the third aircraft carrier, Admiral Kumar said, “It is being processed through the Ministry of Defense and cleared by the Defense Procurement Board (DPB). Now, it has to fill up the Defense Security Corps (DSC) so there are some staff work requirements.”

The Navy chief asserted that the aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, will go for a full operation clearance by the end of this year. “Vikrant after commissioning went through the initial operation clearance, landings and placing the craft and guarantee docking. Now, she will go for a full operation clearance,”

On pursuing the Red Sea, the Navy chief said that the force is presently monitoring the situation there. “We will go inside the Red Sea when our interests are threatened. We do not have many Indian flag vessels at the region and, so far, none of it has faced any issue. We are monitoring the situation,” he said.