FIRST-HAND EXPERIENCE: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with his wife Gursharan Kaur (second from right) and Naval Chief Arun Prakash (second from left), on board the Aircraft Carrier INS Viraat off the coast of Goa on Friday to witness the naval exercises. — Photo: Shirish Shete/ PTI

ON BOARD INS VIRAAT: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday witnessed a hair-raising display exercise by the Navy's Western Fleet. The two-day naval exercise began on Friday.

"All hands to action stations," cracked the voice of the Officer of the Watch on the public address system on board aircraft carrier INS Viraat in the dead of night. "Assume anti-air state one; first degree of readiness; damage control state one; Condition Zulu." He was ordering all 150 officers and 1,500 sailors of the carrier to rush to their battle stations, as a missile attack was on.

"Practice missile firing"

Nobody was startled or surprised. In fact, all personnel were looking forward to the "practice missile firing." The order set off a chain reaction.

The situation was equally exciting on a dozen other warships, including those from the stealthy Talwar class, as they too got into the act. Their task was to track the missile and monitor the anti-missile response of a frigate.

Dr. Singh, National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan, Chief of the Naval Staff Arun Prakash, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Western Naval Command Vice-Admiral S.S. Byce and Flag Officer Commanding of the Western Fleet Rear Admiral Anup Singh were witnessing the action from the starboard side of the ski-jump on the flight deck.

Frigate INS Ganga played the "enemy" and launched a deadly sea skimming surface-to-surface missile, which started surging towards the carrier. But INS Ganga's sister ship, INS Gomati, sailing few miles away, responded with two Barak missiles. The Barak is a ship-borne anti-missile weapon with a range of 10 to 12 km and is launched vertically.

One of the Barak missiles looped down to take the hostile missile head-on, and it seemed as if one star was killing another. As there was no hostile target left, the other Barak dropped into the sea. For safety reasons, the hostile missile and the Barak missiles had no warheads.

The Navy also showcased its reach and flexibility and punch by several other spectacular combat actions, including launch of Sea Harriers to display their operations, submarine detection and anti-submarine rocket firing.

Earlier, Admiral Byce briefed Dr. Singh on his command.

Addressing the officers and sailors, Dr. Singh said the Government was committed to providing the Navy with the capabilities that span the entire naval strategic spectrum, from sea denial to sea control, while ensuring long range sustainability and the ability to project power at short notice.

Referring to the country's emergence on the world stage as an economic powerhouse, he said, "All great powers have also been great trading nations, and we cannot be a great trading nation without a strong maritime capability." He underscored the need to enhance the proportion of vessels built indigenously and called for modernisation of the shipyards.

The strengthening of the Navy was also necessary in view of the geo-political importance of the Indian Ocean area and India's vital interest in the region.

He declared that the second aircraft carrier being procured from Russia would be named INS Vikramaditya.

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