Underwater Domain Awareness

This book presents a comprehensive analysis of the emerging underwater challenges facing India in the Indian Ocean region. With major economic powers like China, the United States, and Russia modernising their submarine fleets and building advanced unmanned underwater vessels to enhance surveillance capabilities, the competition in the Indo-Pacific underwater domain has intensified.

The book

· Focuses on the issues of detecting, tracking, and classifying submarines/underwater drones in the Indian Ocean.

· Examines the Indian Navy’s present anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities in combating underwater threats and discusses the scope for inter-agency, inter-departmental cooperation framework to monitor the undersea activity in the region.

· Studies the naval composition and strengths of India and other countries in the neighbourhood and reviews maritime domain awareness practices employed by leading navies including NATO for submarine detection.

· Assesses the technology development efforts to deal with these challenges and brings out recommendations.

An expert study of undersea surveillance, this book will be indispensable to students and researchers of military and strategic studies, defence studies, critical security, conflict resolution, intelligence studies, and security studies. It will also be of interest to governments, naval establishments, think tanks, and public policy institutes.

Prakash Pannerselvam is Assistant Professor with the International Strategic and Security Studies Programme, NIAS, India. He holds a PhD in Japanese studies from the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. He was the first Visiting Fellow to Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force (JMSDF) Staff College, Tokyo. He is a recipient of the Japan Foundation Fellow (2011) and Okita Memorial Fellowship (2008). He was also a trained merchant mariner with Poompuhar Shipping Corporation Ltd. Prior to joining NIAS, he was working with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Defence and Aerospace Sector.

Rajaram Nagappa, a specialist in aerospace propulsion, has worked extensively in the design and development of solid propellant rockets. His interests are in missile technology and space weaponisation. He has served at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, ISRO as its Associate Director, and later was Pandalai Memorial Chair Professor at Anna University, Chennai, India. He has also taught at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Israel. He is a recipient of the Astronautical Society of India Award, Distinguished Alumnus Award of the Madras Institute of Technology, DRDO’s Agni Award for Excellence in Self Reliance, Certificate of Appreciation of the International Astronautical Federation and the Honorary Fellowship of the High Energy Materials Society of India. His recent work includes an assessment of the Pakistani cruise missiles and an assessment of the Iranian satellite launch vehicle Safir. He has also traced the development of fighter aircrafts in China as a part of a study on China’s science and technology capability.

R.N. Ganesh (Retd. Vice Admiral) has commanded a diesel submarine, a nuclear submarine and the aircraft carrier INS Vikrant. He has served as the Flag Officer Submarines, Flag Officer Commanding Western Fleet, and Commander Andaman and Nicobar Islands. His other assignments were Director General, Indian Coast Guard, and Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Naval Command. His last appointment was as the Director General of the Indian nuclear submarine programme which he continued to head after retirement from active service till 2004. He has studied at the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, the National Defence College, New Delhi, India and the Adm. Makarov Pacific Fleet Higher Naval Academy, Vladivostok, Russia. His interests include maritime security and strategic affairs, and maritime security developments. He is currently collaborating with ISSSP on the Chinese Anti-ship Ballistic Missile capability studies.