NEW DELHI: With piracy rising in the Indian Ocean Region, the Indian Navy has enhanced its asset deployment and will continue to take “affirmative action” to secure the region, Navy chief Admiral R Hari Kumar said on Saturday.The Navy has apprehended 35 pirates and brought them to Mumbai to be tried under the Indian Anti-Piracy Act, 2022.“Piracy has resurfaced as an industry to profiteer or to gain from the disorder that is happening in that area (Indian Ocean). And we are determined that we will not permit that. That’s why we are taking affirmative action,” Admiral Kumar told reporters.He termed the continuing high-tempo operations as a testament to the “new and confident Bhartiya Nau Sena.” “These 100 days of sustained Operation Sankalp have broken the myth of short and swift operations. Therefore, there is a need to realise that we have been able to carry forward sustained operation if we need to ensure there is safety, security and stability in the ocean,” the Navy chief said.“As of yesterday, we had 11 submarines operating simultaneously in the sea where more than 35 ships and over five aircraft deployed in different parts of the Indian Ocean Region,” he explained.With vessels being targeted by drones, missiles and then by the pirates, Operation Sankalp Phase 2 was launched. The Phase 1 was initiated in 2008.“The Navy has been deploying continuously. I would say about 10 ships are present in this entire region to carry out three tasks — anti-piracy, anti-hijacking and anti-drone. Right from the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden to the North Arabian Sea and to the East Coast of Somalia, this is the area that we are operating where we have deployed these ships,” he said.With the rising incidents, the High Risk Area has already come back in many ways, he said. The Indian Ocean was removed as High Risk Area in 2023 as there was reduced piracy threat since 2018.On the question of the Indian Navy’s actions and interests in the region, the Admiral said, “We have an interest because there are Indian crew onboard almost all these ships. As far as we are concerned, Bharat’s (India’s) national interest also extends to our personnel who are there all over the world…”As drones can be manufactured locally, this has now brought to the fore the cost asymmetry between the attacker and the defender, he said. “You make a drone for, say, as cheap as less than Rs 10-20 lakh and if you have to defend it and shoot it down, the missile will cost Rs 5-10 crore,” he said.Warship with 35 Somali pirates reaches MumbaiWarship INS Kolkata, carrying 35 pirates who were apprehended in an operation off the coast of Somalia, reached Mumbai on Saturday morning, the Navy said. These pirates were then handed over to the Mumbai police, it said. The exercise was undertaken as part of the ongoing Operation Sankalp, wherein Indian Navy ships are deployed in the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden for the safety of seafarers and mercantile trade passing through the region.
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