The Indian Navy has raised high alert for surveillance and operations in the Arabian Sea after the drone attack on the Mangalore-bound chemical tanker MV Chem Pluto, and has sent four guided-missile destroyers into the high seas to protect commercial shipping from drone missile attacks in the Arabian Sea. West Asia region, people familiar with the matter said Monday.
The Navy also launched multi-role P8I aircraft as well as Sea Guardian drones to improve maritime domain awareness even as the MV Chem Pluto drone arrived at the Mumbai port in the early hours of Christmas Day, the people added.
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Read | The Navy scrambles its planes after a drone hit a commercial ship
An Indian defense team was on board to investigate the drone attack at the time of printing. The chemical tanker was struck 210 nautical miles off Dwarka in Gujarat, 500 nautical miles off the coast of Iran, and 860 nautical miles off the coast of Yemen. At the time, it had two Iranian ships in close proximity — MV Saviz and MV Artenos — and the possibility of launching the drone from a bulk carrier cannot be ruled out yet, said the people cited above, who requested anonymity.
With the Shiite Houthi rebels, who control large parts of Yemen, targeting commercial ships in the Red Sea and North Arabian Sea, the Indian warship INS Kolkata is already at the mouth of the Red Sea awaiting instructions from New Delhi in case of any further intervention. required. The destroyer INS Kochi is present in the North Arabian Sea, and the destroyers INS Visakhapatnam and INS Chennai are already operating on the high seas to ensure that sea lines remain open and any military obstacles are addressed immediately. All four warships carry BrahMos land-based attack missiles, in addition to surface-to-air missiles, and carry anti-submarine helicopters.
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Navy tanker INS Deepak is also on the high seas for refitting as well as an offshore patrol vessel (OPV), the people said.
While the Iranians have denied US allegations that they were the ones who targeted the MV ChemPluto, the possibility that the Houthis used an Iranian-made 1,350-nautical-mile-range Shahed drone to target the chemical tanker cannot be ruled out, security experts studying the incident cannot be ruled out. . The Houthis’ intentions to randomly target commercial tankers in the Arabian Sea and the Red Sea have become clear in recent days, and have emerged as a reason for serious concern about maritime security in the region. These experts added that the attacks appear to be aimed at pressuring the US-led coalition to demand that Israel stop military operations against Hamas in the Gaza war.
While the US Navy has two strike forces in the region, the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman are crowded with large tankers and bulk carriers carrying oil to different parts of the world. On average, 50 ships pass through the Suez Canal, representing 12% of global trade and 30% of global container traffic, worth approximately US$1 trillion annually. After the Houthi attacks, a large proportion of shipping was diverted via the Cape of Good Hope, which led to an increase in cost and oil consumption.
