Author: Vice Admiral Arun Kumar Singh (Retd)
The Indian Navy has always planned to develop a ‘balanced force capability’ comprising naval aviation, submarines, warships and marine commandos, so that it can protect national interests across huge ocean areas by a capability to deter and if necessary combat all threats. It would be preferable to have four larger SSBNs with 12 to 16 SLBMs (with MIRV) ranges of 6,000 km to deter China from a patrol area in the Bay of Bengal itself.