India’s First Island Chain
“The Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC) is India’s first island chain and the final outpost of our defensive strategy”. Rear Admiral Sudarshan Y. Shrikhande (Retd), one of the country’s foremost maritime analysts and a former Assistant Chief of Naval Staff, Intelligence says. In ‘The Arc of Power’, Episode II, he adds, “they’re like forts across the Andaman Sea. And the Bay of Bengal”. StratNews Global first sailed from Sri Vijaya Puram, which was Port Blair till September 2024, to Rutland Island. And filmed an amphibious beach assault in Episode I. We now move northward about 200 kilometres or 108 nautical miles on board the Indian Naval Ship Saryu to Diglipur. To Aerial Bay Jetty, INS Kohassa and the Kalipur Beach. A StratNews Global team of Amitabh P. Revi, Rohit Pandita and Vashisht Mattoo continue documenting the ANC. Deepankar Varma completes the SNG team with his illustrative graphics.
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INS Kohassa: Strategic Sentinel
The Indian Naval air station, INS Kohassa, is located in the northernmost part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (ANI). Its close proximity to the Coco Islands, and the eyes and ears it has on any of China’s activities, gives it immense strategic importance. On the Kalipur beach, Air Marshal Saju Balakrishnan, the Commander-in-Chief, ANC (CINCAN) discusses the Command’s Area of Responsibility (AoR), operational focus and challenges, vulnerabilities, advantages and conventional as well as sub conventional threats. He also tells us about the “need to build more and longer airfields and jetties”, the plans, and the challenges of execution of policies. “One big challenge”, he points out “is to identify which are the critical areas the ANC can hold in strength, and which are the contingencies that need to be anticipated for. Management of limited resources and timelines is what I always try and attempt to match”, he adds.
P-8, Fighter Jets In ANC
Around the north, Naval air station Kohassa acts as a critical extension of India’s eyes and ears in the Bay of Bengal and the eastern Indian Ocean. Further south, India’s P-8I long range maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft made its first landing on the Car Nicobar runway way back in 2018. A U.S. Navy P-8A was also reported to have landed and refuelled in then Port Blair in 2020. In Part II, Air Marshal D.K. Patnaik (Retd), Former Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (AoCinC), Eastern Air Command (EAC) also discusses how India is equipped to take on China’s threat and when all the ANC’s runways will be fit for the country’s fighter jets to operate from.
Gorkha Khukris Defend Kalipur Beach
On Diglipur, we film unclassified parts of the Indian Army trench defences, with among others a Gorkha regiment. INS Kohassa’s personnel also speak to us about their professional lives as well as their interaction, outreach and assistance to the islanders.
