The Diplomat: The logic of India's warship numbers

In addition to their economic, constabulary, and diplomatic responsibilities, Indian warships are constantly preparing for their primary warfighting role

By Ajai Shukla
The Diplomat, 3rd March 25

On a single day in January this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi commissioned into the Indian Navy three indigenously built capital warships: a destroyer, a frigate, and a submarine. Soon after, another Krivak III-type frigate, built in Russia for India, joined the Indian Navy’s western fleet. While that is a noteworthy force accretion over the time span of just a month, India still has a long way to go before it deploys the 200-ship navy that one New Delhi force planner pithily described as “the minimum fleet size needed for securing a neighborhood where there are fewer neighbors than hoods.”

Warship numbers are vital for the range of missions that India’s navy executes daily. It is required to monitor and protect over 7,500 km of peninsular and island coastline and more than 2 million square km of exclusive economic zone. The navy’s offshore patrol vessels safeguard commercial shipping from being plundered by pirates, criminals, and terrorists operating from lawless waters astride the Horn of Africa. Having willingly taken on the roles and responsibilities of the Indian Ocean’s “gatekeeper,” the Indian Navy is expected to keep open the international shipping lanes, stretching from the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Aden to the Malacca Strait, through which over 30 percent of the world’s trade flows.

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