The year-long diamond jubilee celebrations of the Navy’s Maritime Warfare Centre (MWC) at the Naval Base here is culminating with a day-long seminar on Thursday on various aspects of maritime law with a view to building the foundation for upgrading the course offered by the MWC.
Besides training Indian naval officers in this intricate subject, the MWC has chipped in to train officers of friendly navies as well. A basic course in maritime law was recently offered to officers of the Sri Lankan Navy while the South African Navy has now requested for the same, says Commodore N. Anil Jose Joseph, an anti-submarine warfare specialist at the helm of the MWC.
Training is what distinguishes MWC, Kochi, the oldest such centre for the Navy, from the other two MWCs located in Mumbai and Vizag. Every Sub Lieutenant of the Indian Navy takes a course at the Kochi centre. There are long courses lasting a few months for mid-level officers and a week-long capsule for Commanding Officers and Executive Officers. Training is provided in wargaming and analysis, nurturing leadership and human resources management. Wargaming is done at three levels: there’s Shiksha, which assesses strategic plans at the highest level, while Prayas is done counting the deliverables. MWC, Kochi, plays the umpire when theatre-level wargames are played out at sea between the Western and the Eastern Naval Commands.
Unlike the olden times, when asset replicas were moved on tables or on paper as part of warfighting and tactics, these days it’s all done on computers using software designed for the purpose. Multitudes of scenarios and possibilities can be simulated to try out responses and the centre has a robust network of systems to carry this out. Effort is under way to digitally integrate the three MWCs which will make it possible to carry out and control these critical exercises part of training or revalidation of doctrine sitting in different places, points out Cmde Joseph.
Established as a tactical unit of the Royal Indian Navy in 1942 at Churchgate in erstwhile Bombay, the school was shifted to Kochi post-independence as a tactical table unit where wargaming was practised on a glass table. Right now, the centre trains as many as 1,200 officers annually. Foreign officers started training at MWC, Kochi, since 1977.
