Maroc - EURASIAREVIEW.COM - A la une - 08/Aug 20:04

Guardians Of The Indian Ocean: How India’s IFC-IOR Is Transforming Maritime Security – Analysis

The Indian Navy’s leadership hosts a world-class collaborative maritime information fusion centre for the Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) near Delhi with 14 International Liaison officers and a clear mission to enhance Maritime Domain Awareness (DMA) and coordinate activities through information sharing, cooperation, and proficiency development. Its beginnings and growth have been synonymous with the Indian Navy’s growth and partner nations in recent years. The Indian Navy operates 138 ships and submarines, including two aircraft carriers and 240 aerial assets. The Navy’s significant warships have the Indigenous 400 km Brahmos surface, land attack, Barak 60km AA missiles and the latest guidance radars like the M/F Star from Israel. The Navy has two medium-sized carriers with MIG-29K fighter planes and Sea Hawk MH60R and Kamov 28 helicopters. Orders for 26 Rafale M have been placed and can force multipliers in the region with a decisive Indian Air Force with sea-going surveillance and transport and fighter assets. With nearly three-fourths of the earth's surface covered by oceans, the Indian Ocean has emerged as a critical player in global geopolitics. Its waters are vital for a nation’s maritime security, safe navigation, trade, and the world's economy, including the blue economy. Prime Minister Pandit Nehru succinctly captured this strategic importance on 28 March 1958, when he remarked from INS Mysore, “We cannot afford to be weak at sea, and history has shown that whatever power controls the Indian Ocean has, in the first instance, India's seaborne trade at her mercy, and in the second, India's very independence itself.” One of the first Indians to highlight India's peninsular geo-strategic importance in the Indian Ocean was Sardar K M Parrikar (June 1895– December 1963). He was an Indian strategist and diplomat educated at Oxford, and India’s first Ambassador to China was in 1950. He wrote about an Indian Ocean Strategy and advocated how critical the sea was for India’s future. The statement, “Whoever controls the Indian Ocean will dominate Asia; the world's destiny will be decided on its waters.” is attributed to. Naval strategist Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan (September 1840-December 1914) wrote on the importance of trade and power abroad. Commodore Dewey’s victory at Manila in 1898 enabled the United States to exercise control over the Philippines until 1946. The USA has not looked back since, and China hopes to join Paul Kennedy’s list of nations that rise and fall. The seas are a determinant. With increasing threats of piracy, smuggling and terrorism and the rapid development of technology and satellites, the need for surveillance of the seas has become paramount. Maritime and coastal surveillance is as crucial as guarding the national land borders. The Indian Navy has never lost Pannikar's message for India’s Oceanic security. By the 1980s, it became a small builder Navy with powerful ships, submarines, and aerial assets with missiles and guidance radars. The top brass felt the need for maritime domain awareness (MDA) of the seas around India as vital for India’s security, SAR Search and Rescue and HADR Human Assistance and Rehabilitation. The horrific terror attack on Mumbai on 26 November 2008 (26/11) by the sea route in a small boat commandeered by a dozen armed and well-briefed Pakistani terrorists exposed the vulnerability of India via the sea route. Immediately, a National Committee for Strengthening Maritime and Coastal Security (NCSMCS) was set up. By 2014, the Navy had set up an Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) in Gurugram, near Delhi, with communications and inputs to keep a plot of the Indian Ocean. Concurrently, the Raksha Mantri Shri Manohar Parrikar inaugurated the National Command Control Communication and Intelligence Network (NC3I). This coastal security network collates data about all ships, dhows, fishing boats, and vessels operating near the coast from multiple technical sources, including the Automatic indication System (AIS). China lacks sea space and is looking to influence the IOR. India has sea space. Had Pannikar and Mahan been alive in the 22nd century, they would have seen a rising and aggressive China usurping the South China Sea for maritime expansion from its claimants, as the leadership knows the importance of maritime security for power and trade. China decided to expand its maritime domain and has usurped rocks in the South China Sea (SCS). With technology, the Chinese have converted rocks into islands and fortified them with missiles and airfields, disregarding the legitimate claims of the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Singapore by blatantly quoting historical charts for claims to the South China Seas and shredding United Nations Laws of the Seas UNCLOS (1982) to the winds. This has made the Asia-Pacific a region of rivalry between the USA and China. A rising India is considered a swing state but follows strategic autonomy and has close relations with Russia and the USA. Russia has partnered with China, India’s ‘bete noire’. The Navy realised that Maritime Fusion Centres are pivotal in enhancing maritime security by enabling the sharing and analysis of information among stakeholders, including government agencies, maritime organisations, and private sector entities. These centres facilitate coordination, situational awareness, and response to maritime threats like piracy, smuggling, illegal fishing and aid for SAR. In war, a fusion centre would aid the operational hubs. The Navy conducted studies of the Singapore Fusion Centre at Changi and the Regional Centre Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery in Asia ReCAAP, the Information Sharing Centre in Singapore, funded by Japan, where an Indian Coast Guard officer is posted. The Navy looked at the Safe-Sea-Net system to monitor maritime traffic in European waters (EMSA) and the UK’s various MDA initiatives, including the Nationwide Automatic Identification System (NAIS) and the Global Maritime Awareness. At sea in the Malabar exercises, the US Navy loans satellite antennae and the Combined Enterprise Regional Information Exchange System ( CENTRIXS) with sea riders for situational awareness. CENTRIX gave the navy hands-on experience. Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) was contracted to establish the 46 unmanned static radar sensor towers with internet data transmission called the Coastal Surveillance Network (CSN). Of these, 36 were set up on the coast and ten on the Andaman and Lakshadweep islands. In August 2017, the Minister of State for Defence, Dr Subhash Bhamre, informed the Rajya Sabha the Coastal Surveillance Network (CSN) was operational. The Scanter 2001 dual S/X band radars came from Terma of Denmark, and most cameras were from Israel. The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and DG Shipping oversaw Saab Tech Transponder of Sweden to implement the project with its Indian partner, Elcome Marine Services. The Navy expanded the IMAC at Gurgaon with world-class communications and Internet connectivity to become a regional Information Fusion Centre for the Indian Ocean Region for regional maritime security called the IFC-IOR. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launched the IFC-IOR in December 2018. The centre works towards enhancing maritime security and safety in the Indian Ocean. Currently, the IFC-IOR has fourteen International Liaison Officers (ILO) from partner nations (Australia, France, Italy, Japan, Maldives, Mauritius, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Seychelles, Singapore, United Kingdom and the United States of America)), two of whom are the nation’s defence attaches in Delhi. They give inputs from their countries and other inputs, and plots of the area are electronically maintained with data from worldwide merchant ships. The Centre monitors white shipping with reports from shipping companies in the Indian Ocean and adjoining seas to understand each region and generates various periodic reports, viz., weekly maritime security updates (WMSU), monthly maritime security updates (MMSU), Half-Yearly Overviews, and Annual Reports. The centre has strengthened maritime security in the region by building a coherent maritime situation picture and acting as a maritime security information-sharing hub for friendly and partner countries, and real-time plots and data can be provided. This enhances regional cooperation against piracy and armed robbery in Asia. The IFC-IOR also collects and disseminates incident reports, conducts trend analysis, and promotes best practices for maritime safety with the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) Regional Maritime Information Fusion Centre (RMIFC) in Madagascar and other regional centres in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Dubai. There is always a danger of overloading information. AI and Machine Learning may enhance predictive capabilities and automate data analysis of the data from satellites, radars, AIS, and other sources for a comprehensive maritime picture. Friendly nations are increasingly collaborating to combat maritime threats and maintain cybersecurity to protect maritime data and systems from cyber threats. MDA technologies to track and mitigate environmental impacts like oil spills and illegal fishing. Shipping companies are increasingly using this method. Maritime Domain Awareness ensures maritime security, safety, and environmental protection. Integrating advanced technologies and international cooperation is key to addressing the complex challenges faced in the marine domain. IFC-IOR, with around ten officers, also provides training and disseminates best practices to enhance maritime security and safety and studies variations in national laws and international regulations. In conclusion, the Indian Navy’s IFC-IOR, by coordinating with partner navies and ship owners and Flag States of Ships, has played a crucial role in the back end of four hijackings, numerable SAR and firefighting missions and warding off Houthi attacks from Yemen in trying times in the area.