The Indian Navy is planning to further strengthen it’s capabilities along the western seaboard by establishing a new naval air base in Karwar in Karnataka for operating both fighter and surveillance aircraft.
“We have plans of establishing a Naval Air Station at Karwar for basing and operation of fixed and rotary-wing military aircraft,” Navy officials said on Tuesday.
The new naval air base is part of the Indian Navy’s Rs 10,000 crore plans under the phase II of Project Sea Bird.
The Karwar Naval base will house the Russian Aircraft carrier ‘Admiral Gorshkov’, which India bought along with six Scorpene submarines and several other warships.
The Navy already has an air base in Goa and has deployed it’s upgraded MiG 29K and Sea Harrier fighter aircraft there.
The Navy has also placed orders for 29 more MiG 29K carrier-borne fighter planes from Russia along with the indigenous versions of the naval variant of the Light Combat Aircraft ‘Tejas’. All these new assets which the navy is acquiring at a very fast pace will put pressure on the existing infrastructure
Under the Phase-II of the Project, Karwar will get an armament depot, dockyard complex and missile silos, apart from additional jetties, berthing and anchorage facilities.
There are firm plans to expand the base to the extent where it can provide requisite berthing and operational fleet base facilities for the operation, administration and command and control of over 30 warships and submarines.
The Karwar base would be the largest naval base is Asia and the third such major base of the Indian Navy. The Karwar naval base is being expanded at a time when Pakistan is developing ports with Chinese help. The base will surely provide strategic depth to India’s maritime force.
Apart from augmenting the Navy’s war fighting capabilities, Karwar will help in decongesting Mumbai which has seen a significant increase in merchant shipping in the past few years.
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