Hyderabad: National Security Advisor Ajit Doval is expected to commission India’s first satellite and ballistic missile tracking ship, Dhruv from Visakhapatnam on September 10.
The ship is built by Hindustan Shipyard in collaboration with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO). It also has the capability to also map ocean beds for research and detection of enemy submarines.
The ship weighing nearly 10,000-tonnes, is part of a classified a project, which will be at the heart of India’s future anti-ballistic missile capability. It is expected to act as an early warning system for enemy missiles headed towards Indian cities and military establishments. The ship will be a vital key to maritime domain awareness in the Indo-Pacific and is being commissioned at a time when underwater drones, both armed and surveillance types have become common.
According to official reports, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Karambir Singh and NTRO Chairman Anil Dasmana will be present at the launch ceremony along with senior DRDO and Navy officials. The nuclear missile tracking ship will be crewed by Indian Navy personnels with the Strategic Forces Command (SFC). Such ships are operated by France, the US, the UK, Russia, and China only.
INS Dhruv provides DRDO developed state-of-the-art energetic scanned array radar or AESA with the flexibility to scan varied spectrums to observe spy satellites watching over India, in addition to monitor missile exams in the whole area. This will add to the Indian Navy’s functionality to observe the area from the Gulf of Aden to the ingress routes to the South China Sea through Malacca, Sunda, Lombok, Ombai and Wetar straits.
INS Dhruv by mapping the Indian Ocean mattress will even assist the Indian Navy plan higher army operations in all three dimensions—sub-surface, floor and aerial. On condition that China has moved to sea-based army doctrine with enormous investments in long-range plane carriers, warships and submarines, the most recent Indian ship will assist India’s digital intelligence-gathering spy company, the NTRO, to challenge risk to India in real-time.
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