The distinction between pirates and maritime terrorists is becoming more blurred. It is no wonder, says Joseph Noronha, that there are everincreasing demands for maritime air surveillance both in the littorals and high seas

The sea is beautiful, bountiful and mysterious. It can also be deadly. Storms can be skirted or weathered and sea monsters fortunately are no longer sighted, but security threats emanating from the sea, abound. Has memory faded of how a small fanatical band of heavily armed men unleashed death and destruction in Mumbai in November 2008, holding the entire nation to ransom? They arrived silently, stealthily and unchallenged—on a rubber dinghy. Could it happen again?

Maritime terrorism is a live possibility. Terrorists could make an unobtrusive entry by sea and attack ports and other vital shore installations. They could disrupt the sea lines of communication (SLOCs). They could create mayhem at choke points, exploiting the vulnerabilities of unarmed shipping. Hand-in-hand with terrorism, are increasingly audacious attempts by modern pirates to target high-value maritime assets. And the threats posed by people-traffickers and smugglers—of contraband goods, drugs, arms, ammunition and explosives—have not gone away. All in all, maritime security issues are forcing governments and security agencies across the globe to plunge into a relatively unfamiliar environment.

On a Wide Watch

In February 2009, the Indian government designated the Indian Navy as the authority responsible for the country’s overall maritime security, which includes coastal and offshore security. The Navy is assisted by the Indian Coast Guard, state marine police and other central and state security agencies. The Coast Guard has additionally been designated as the authority responsible for coastal security in territorial waters including areas to be patrolled by the coastal police. The country’s maritime interests include 13 major and 185 minor ports as well as offshore oil/gas assets. The area to be kept under surveillance is enormous—a 7,516 km long coastline, 1,197 islands and an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) extending over 2.01 million square km.

The Indian Coast Guard shoulders much of the responsibility for aerial coastal surveillance with its Dornier 228 fixedwing aircraft, besides Dhruv and Aérospatiale SA316 Alouette III (Chetak) helicopters. The Indian Navy currently deploys around 15 Dornier 228-101 aircraft and 12 Israeli Searcher Mark II and Heron unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for the purpose. But the country’s maritime area of interest stretches from the Persian Gulf (where anti-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia continue) across the Indian Ocean to the Strait of Malacca. Its economic growth and energy security depends on safe transit of vessels across the Arabian Sea—a region where security challenges emanating from Pakistan and nonstate actors abound. The Bay of Bengal is relatively more benign. Though China is reportedly making disquieting attempts to win friends and influence people, India’s strategic strength lies in this region. The Central Indian Ocean also bears watching. But for these far-flung areas that may need patrolling even in peacetime, the Navy currently has resources which are decades old—eight ultra-long-range Tu-142ME ‘Bear’ aircraft and five upgraded Il-38SD ‘May’ aircraft.

Eyes and Ears No More

Maritime patrol is about monitoring, surveillance and much more. It includes active patrolling by a ship, submarine, aircraft or satellite—closely examining the patrolled area and ferreting out suspicious activities to be identified and reported. In war, it is critical for navies to locate potentially hostile forces well in advance. Carrier-based patrol aircraft are especially useful to prevent enemy submarines and ships from getting too close to the aircraft carrier. During peacetime, patrols help to monitor and obstruct criminal activities, while safeguarding lawful use of the waters. Large, land-based maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) and their poorer cousins, maritime surveillance aircraft (MSA), capable of monitoring long distances and remaining airborne for many hours, are often used. Due to their wide field of view and high speed such aircraft can rapidly scour large expanses of water. MSA are a cheaper substitute for MPA, especially in patrolling the EEZ that stretches to 200 nautical miles from the coast. They have much the same mission equipment but are more compact and can deliver similar outcomes at lower cost. An added advantage is that they can generally be obtained commercially off the shelf.

An MPA is a true multi-mission platform—one of the most functional and flexible airborne systems currently available. It has enough crew members, including relief flight crew, so as to comfortably operate for many hours, if necessary with in-flight refuelling. Apart from maritime surveillance, it can function in anti-shipping, anti-submarine and search and rescue roles. It is typically fitted with a variety of sensors, including radar to detect surface shipping and magnetic anomaly detector (MAD) to detect submarines. It can drop sonobuoys into the sea that detect submarines and transmit data back to the aircraft for analysis. It also has infrared cameras, useful in monitoring shipping movements, and electronic intelligence (ELINT) equipment to intercept telecommunications.

But what about the present-day menace posed by speedboats bearing heavily armed pirates who freely roam the seas in search of their prey—tankers and merchant ships? Or terrorists, laden with explosives, who hijack fishing boats and use them for nefarious purposes? MPA are undoubtedly useful reconnaissance platforms. With actionable intelligence they might indeed pick up and identify such threats expeditiously. However, these aircraft are expensive to acquire and operate. Frittering away their flying hours in peacetime would be akin to driving a tank to the supermarket and could render them unavailable for actual military missions. For this reason, a mix of MPA and basic surveillance aircraft would be preferable. It is also important to remember that the bad guys try to merge with the vast number of legitimate passenger, cargo and fishing vessels that ply the oceans. A trigger-happy approach could easily result in an international incident.