No Indian Vessels Targeted, Piracy Emerging as an Industry: Navy Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar

The Navi Chief, Admiral R Ravi Kumar said that 10 warships have been deployed for anti-piracy, anti-missile and anti-drone operations under the Operation Sankalp in the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea and Red Sea region.

New Delhi: Addressing the media personnel from the newly inaugurated Nausena Bhawan New Delhi, the Navy Chief, Admiral R Ravi Kumar on the completion of 100 days of the Indian Navy’s operations for anti-drone, anti-missile and anti-piracy attacks in the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea and Red Sea highlighted the bold steps taken by the Indian Navy to combat the piracy operations in the region.

"We have deployed 10 warships in the region for anti-piracy, anti-missile and anti-drone operations under the Operation Sankalp. The task is to ensure safety and stability for merchant vessels carrying cargo to reach shores safely. With their deployment, they can respond to attacks or incidents as first responders", Kumar said.

Op Sankal has broken the myth of short and swift operations and stressed in need for sustained operations to ensure safety and stability in the oceans, he said. "The pace of operations is quite high and we have 11 submarines and 30 warships operating in different parts of the ocean to ensure coverage of all areas of interest", Kumar said.

He futher highlighted that no Indian vessels have been targeted and that only vessels having linkages with Israel have been attacked.

"None of our Indian vessel have been targeted. The Houthis have been targetting the vessels having linkages with Israel. They are also targeting ships with flags of western countries like the US and UK. We are getting involved because we have Indian crew on almost all these ships", he added.

Praising the Maritime Policy Act 2022, he said that it has now enabled them to visit, board and search pirated ships. He added saying, "This act is a great enabler. In the last 100 days, we may have made at least 1,000 such boardings."

In the last 10 years, this is the first time that pirates in such huge numbers of pirates have been caught. They used the big hijacked ships as mother ships and they were moving around. This is what we have been trying to stop, he added.

On piracy resurfacing as an industry in the region after the October 7 attack by the Hamas militants in Israel followed by the bombardments by Israel and the entry of Houthis in the war, the Navy chief said that "Piracy has resurfaced as an industry to gain from the disorder in the region. We will take affirmative action to prevent that."

It is easy for Houthi rebels in Yemen to find details of the ships can be found with the automatic identification system. "That is how they have been targeting the ships through missiles and drones. Drones are also being used to monitor the ships", he further added.

It is worthy to note here that last week on Saturday, March 16, as many as 35 Somalian pirates were captured by the Indian Navy in a joint operation with help of Indian Air Force’s C-17 heavy airlift aircraft to airdrop Marcos commandos.

Warship INS Kolkata, carrying 35 pirates who were apprehended in an operation off the coast of Somalia last week reached Mumbai on Saturday morning and were handed over to the Mumbai police.