Chinese navy snooping rising in Indian Ocean: Navy

Over the last few years snooping in the Indian Ocean by Chinese Navy ships have increased but the surveillance infrastructure of the Indian Navy especially its P-81 long-range marine patrol aircraft has been able to keep an eye on such activities, said Naval Officer-in-CHarge (Bengal Area) Commodore Suprabho De on Tuesday.

“We can keep an eye on such activities (of the Chinese Naby) in the Indian Ocean with the P-81 long-range maritime patrol aircraft,” said De. He was speaking to reporters on the eve of Navy Day celebrations. The celebrations will be held on Wednesday.

De also said that currently the Indian Navy operates eight P-81 aircraft and will acquire four more of these surveillance aircraft from Boeing.

As for the number of ships operated by the Indian Navy he said it will go up from the current 131 ships to 198 ships by 2021.

“Several other warships including an aircraft career and several other destroyers are under various stages of construction at Defence PSUs,” said De.

The development comes at a time when the Chinese navy is steadily increasing its footprint in the Indian Ocean.