Major naval exercise held off Gujarat coast

By Arunkumar Bhatt

MUMBAI, NOV. 17. The Indian Navy, the Air Force and the Coast Guard concluded today in the strategic Saurashtra waters, a major theatre-level exercise, Defence of Gujarat (DGX 2000), aimed at ``evolving, validating and revalidating certain concepts of tactical plans''.

The arena included the Northern Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Kutch, the Gulf of Khambhat (Cambay) and the peninsular coast of Gujarat, endowed to be a gateway to the North Indian hinterland.

Rear Admiral J.S. Bedi, Chief of Staff of the Western Naval Command, and Commodore Mahendra Taneja, Chief Staff Officer (Operations), described DGX 2000 of having yielded ``exciting and heart-warming results for every Indian''. The Navy is particularly happy with the performance of its weapon systems and their matching with her men.

Not only new untried concepts were tested and proved with dividing the participating elements in red and blue forces, each headed by an Admiral, but several force multipliers were also tried out.

Disinformation, deception and psychological warfare aspects were either practised or factored in the DGX 2000.

Over 40 ships and submarines, naval aircraft like Sea Harriers, Tu-42, Il, Islander and Dorniers from the Navy and Coast Guard participated in the exercise in which Jaguars, MiG-23 and MiG-21 of the Air Force also joined. The Air Force has a special squadron and a backup organisation, MAO - Maritime Air Operations - dedicated to the Western Naval Command.

The integration of new inductions, particularly the Delhi class destroyers with other forces, close coordination among different elements and inter-service jointmanship - elements of different armed forces working in tandem in close support of each other for a common military goal - were put to battle test.

Among the participants was INS Sindhushashtra, the tenth Kilo class submarine armed with the Klubs, anti-ship cruise missiles, which was commissioned recently in Russia. The new Kilo's maiden home-coming was marked with a debut straight into the thick of live ammunition and missile exercise.

The Coast Guard ships mounted a major drill to counter an imaginary oil spill to protect the environment of the Indian waters and coastline.

The DGX 2000, more or less an annual affair of the Western Naval Command, was conducted in two phases: work-up and tactical. While the former included trying out of various weapons in a simulated battle scenario, the latter comprised mainly of tactical maneuvering and movement without deploying weapons. The work-up included intensive missile firing, gunnery and anti- submarine warfare measurers. The units were made to operate under intense multi-threat scenario.

The anti-aircraft missiles and guns were tested against remotely- controlled flying targets, American-made Chukar which fly at a speed higher than that of sound. Similarly, remotely-controlled target boats were used for surface weapons. India has embarked upon making the target aircraft, Lakshya. The naval sources refused to say if any of the indigenous weapon system was deployed in the DGX 2000.

A mobile coastal defence missile battery was deployed by the defenders of Gujarat. It fired missiles at approaching ships and the latter made these missiles targets of their anti- missile weapons. They also deployed the local flotilla for seaward defence and a number of onland non-combat organisations in the aid of the exercise.

Admiral Bedi said that the biggest problem of the exercise was identification of a ship as friend or foe since the area is swarming with merchantmen. This problem would dog the maritime forces even in the event of hostilities as they would not like to hit any neutral or friendly ship.

This is the second major military exercise in the area in less than a month. The South Western Air Command of the Indian Air Force just held Exercise Gajraj (elephant) in which several naval and army elements had participated. Admiral Bedi said that the naval exercise was separate from the `Gajraj' in every respect except that some naval units had deployed for it. He said the DGX and `Gajraj' would be amalgamated in future.

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