Beginning of a New Era

Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat (retd)

The major policy decision implicit in the directive of October 1968 signed by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi addressed to the defence minister and the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) was to prepare an action plan and progress steps to achieve advanced strategic frontiers.

This was followed by discussions in 1974 between the Chief of Naval Staff Admiral S.N. Kohli and Admiral of the Fleet S.G. Gorshkov on the broad contours of the navy’s role in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and beyond. Coincidentally, the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) programme was formally initiated by the Prime Minister a few months later. Readers would recall that the United States’ aircraft carrier USS Enterprise had made a threatening move in the Bay of Bengal during Bangladesh operations in December 1971.

Pokhran I (1974), through a peaceful nuclear explosion, was a clear message that the nation would not be coerced into forsaking its national interests. The priority accorded to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was the move in the same direction. Navies are also a mirror of a nation’s capabilities in science and technology. Hence, the nuclear submarine was the platform that would become a ‘factor of uncertainty’ to reckon with in the calculations of the superpower and other extra-regional navies in the IOR.

The quest began with internal discussions at the highest political level. The Prime Minister advised by her principal team of advisors including G. Parthasarthi considered a single page, hand-written, position paper submitted by me, then a young commander in the Indian Navy. It was accepted in principle by the government and was only actively revived in 1980 after the return of Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister, when offers were made at the level of the Soviet defence minister, Marshal D.F. Ustinov and Admiral S.G. Gorshkov to set up a nuclear submarine fleet for India and lease one nuclear submarine to train the Indian crew.

Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi visiting INS Chakra I

This gathered pace despite some ‘refrains’ of, ‘We must learn to walk before we can run. The Soviet offer would neither strengthen