Security concern in Indian Ocean: The United States Department of Defence has reported that China could deploy plane carriers, warships and submarines within the Indian Ocean area, at its first abroad navy base in Djibouti.
This would have profound safety ramifications for the Indian Navy. The US Department of Defence raises this concern in its annual report on China which was launched on Sunday.
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Chinese pier now operational
“In late March 2022, a FUCHI II class (Type 903A) supply ship Luomahu docked at the 450-metre pier for resupply; the first such reported PLA Navy port call to the Djibouti support base, indicating that the pier is now operational,” says the US Department of Defence’s 2022 China Military Power Report. “The pier likely is able to accommodate the PLA Navy’s aircraft carriers, other large combatants, and submarines,” it provides.
Earlier too the US had raised the potential of China on the point of deploy plane carriers within the Indian Ocean area. Admiral Harry Harris Jr., who was commanding the US Pacific Command, mentioned in 2017, “There is nothing to prevent them from sailing in the Indian Ocean today.”
China now has three operational ships, every with incrementally larger functionality. On the opposite aspect, the Indian Navy has two plane carriers – one made-in-Russia INS Vikramaditya and the opposite is INS Vikrant. The latter remains to be not totally operational.
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Lack of expertise
The US report says, “PLA Navy Marines are stationed at the [Djibouti] base with wheeled armoured vehicles and artillery, but are currently largely dependent on nearby commercial ports due to the lack of experience utilizing its recently operational pier on its base.”
PLA forces deployed within the Djibouti base “have interfered with U.S. flights by lasing pilots and flying drones, and the PRC (People’s Republic of China) has sought to restrict Djiboutian sovereign airspace over the base”, it notes.
The Djibouti base appears only a small a part of Beijing figuring out and finally buying land in international locations the place it could actually develop its navy presence.
“Beyond its base in Djibouti, the PRC is very likely already considering and planning for additional military logistics facilities to support naval, air, and ground forces projection,” the US report says. This contains securing a presence within the Indo-Pacific past the unreal islands that it has illegally constructed within the South China Sea.
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