Islamabad, Pakistan – When Indian Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh visited the Indian Navy’s plane service INS Vikrant on Might 30, practically three weeks after a ceasefire was introduced with Pakistan after a four-day battle, he had stern phrases for Islamabad.
Sporting an Indian Navy baseball cap, along with his preliminary “R” emblazoned on it, Singh declared that Pakistan was lucky the Indian Navy had not been referred to as upon through the current hostilities.
“Regardless of remaining silent, the Indian Navy succeeded in tying down the Pakistani Military. Simply think about what’s going to occur when somebody who can hold a rustic’s military locked in a bottle, even by remaining silent, speaks up?” Singh mentioned, standing in entrance of a Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jet on the deck of the 262-metre-long (860 ft) ship.
Simply two days later, on June 1, the Pakistan Navy issued a pointed response. In a message posted on X, it introduced a two-day train, “specializing in countering sub-conventional and uneven threats throughout all main ports and harbours of Pakistan”.
PN performed 2-day Ex specializing in countering sub-conventional & uneven threats throughout all main ports & harbours of Pak, geared toward validating & refining Techniques, Methods & Procedures to make sure sturdy defence of crucial maritime infrastructure in opposition to uneven threats.1/3 pic.twitter.com/R1IsajwyBB
— DGPR (Navy) (@dgprPaknavy) June 1, 2025
These symbolic exhibits of power adopted India’s “Operation Sindoor” and Pakistan’s “Operation Bunyan Marsoos“, the nations’ respective codenames for the four-day battle that resulted in a ceasefire on Might 10.
The standoff was triggered by an April 22 attack in Pahalgam, in Indian-administered Kashmir, through which 26 civilians, nearly all vacationers, had been killed. India blamed armed teams allegedly backed by Pakistan, a cost Islamabad denied.
On Might 7, India launched missile strikes at a number of websites in Pakistan’s Punjab province and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, killing at the very least 51 folks, together with 11 troopers and a number of other youngsters. Over the following three days, the 2 nations exchanged artillery and air energy, hitting one another’s airbases.
The 96 hours of battle introduced 1.6 billion folks to the brink of warfare. However whereas the navies largely remained passive observers, they monitored one another’s actions – and had been prepared for motion.
Satellite tv for pc imagery confirmed that the INS Vikrant moved in the direction of Pakistan quickly after the Pahalgam assault and remained deployed for 4 days within the Arabian Sea earlier than returning to its base in Karnataka.
Pakistan additionally mobilised its fleet, which was bolstered by the docking of a Turkish naval ship in Karachi on Might 2. In response to the Pakistani Navy, Turkish personnel engaged in “a sequence {of professional} interactions” with their counterparts.
Now, even amid the present pause in army tensions, analysts say Singh’s remarks and Pakistan’s naval drills spotlight the rising half that maritime forces may play within the subsequent chapter of their battle. It is a position the Indian and Pakistani navies are well-versed in.
Early naval conflicts
After independence from Britain in August 1947, India inherited two-thirds of British India’s naval property.
These noticed no use through the first India-Pakistan warfare in 1947, over the contested Himalayan area of Kashmir. India and Pakistan each administer elements of Kashmir, together with China, which governs two skinny strips. India claims all of Kashmir, whereas Pakistan claims all of the elements not managed by China, its ally.
By the 1965 warfare, additionally over Kashmir, Pakistan had expanded its fleet with help from the US and United Kingdom, its Chilly Battle allies. It had acquired Ghazi, a long-range submarine, giving it an edge over India, which lacked a submarine on the time, although it owned an plane service. Pakistan, up to now, doesn’t have an plane service.
Whereas the land warfare began on September 6, the Pakistan Navy joined the battle on the night time of September 7-8. A fleet of seven warships and submarine PNS Ghazi left Karachi harbour and made their approach in the direction of the Indian naval base of Dwarka within the western state of Gujarat, roughly 350km (217 miles) away.
They had been tasked with finishing up the “bombardment of Dwarka about midnight utilizing 50 rounds per ship”, in response to the Pakistan Navy’s official account, concentrating on the bottom’s radar and different installations.
The choice of Dwarka was important from a historic and strategic perspective. The town is house to probably the most sacred websites for Hindus, the Somnath Temple, on which the Pakistan Navy named its operation.
Militarily, the radar installations in Dwarka had been used to supply steering to the Indian Air Pressure. Knocking them out would have made it more durable for India to launch aerial assaults in opposition to Pakistani cities, particularly Karachi. That, in flip, would have compelled India to ship out its warships from the close by port of Bombay (now Mumbai) – and PNS Ghazi, the submarine, may have ambushed them.
However the Pakistani plan solely partly labored. Many Indian warships had been below upkeep, and so the Indian Navy didn’t ship them out to chase the Pakistani fleet.
In response to the Pakistan Navy’s accounts, after firing about 350 rounds, the operation resulted in “4 minutes” and all its ships returned safely.
Syed Muhammad Obaidullah, a former commodore within the Pakistan Navy, recalled the assault.
“We had been in a position to ship eight vessels, seven ships and a submarine – that stunned the Indians, as our ships focused the radar station used to help Indian planes,” Obaidullah instructed Al Jazeera.
Muhammad Shareh Qazi, a Lahore-based maritime safety skilled, added that the operation was a tactical shock, however didn’t result in any beneficial properties in territory or of the maritime continental shelf.
“All our ships returned safely, with out resistance, nevertheless it was solely an operational-level success for the PN, not a strategic one,” he mentioned, referring to the Pakistan Navy.
Official Indian Navy data declare that many of the shells fired by Pakistani ships prompted no harm and remained unexploded.
Anjali Ghosh, a professor of worldwide relations at Jadavpur College, Kolkata, in her guide India’s International Coverage, described the assault as “daring” however symbolic relatively than strategically significant.
Decisive flip in 1971
The 1971 warfare, fought over East Pakistan’s secession to develop into Bangladesh, noticed extra substantial naval engagements.
India launched two operations – Trident and Python – which dealt main blows to Pakistan’s Navy, sinking a number of ships, together with the destroyer PNS Khaibar and minesweeper PNS Muhafiz, and destroying gasoline tanks at Karachi Harbour.
Uday Bhaskar, a former commodore within the Indian Navy, mentioned the navy performed a pivotal position in India’s 1971 victory.
“The naval position enabled the ultimate end result on land,” Bhaskar, the present director of the Society for Coverage Research, an impartial suppose tank primarily based in New Delhi, instructed Al Jazeera.
Pakistan additionally suffered the lack of its prized submarine Ghazi, which sank whereas laying mines close to Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, house to India’s Japanese Naval Command.
The one main victory for the Pakistani Navy was its torpedoing of the Indian frigate INS Khukri utilizing its submarine Hangor, which killed greater than 170 Indian sailors.
Qazi, who can be an assistant professor at Lahore’s Punjab College, mentioned that the Indian Navy replicated the Pakistani playbook from the 1965 warfare in the best way it stunned the Pakistan Navy.
“India prompted a heavy blow to Pakistan and our naval capabilities had been severely dented,” he mentioned.
Diverging methods
For the reason that 1971 warfare, India and Pakistan have approached completely different naval methods.
Obaidullah, who retired from the Pakistan Navy in 2008, mentioned that India has tried to construct a “blue water navy” able to projecting energy throughout oceans. The thought: “To claim its dominance in [the] Indian Ocean,” he mentioned.
Qazi, the maritime skilled, agreed, saying that the Indian Navy has centered not simply on constructing a numerical benefit in its naval property but additionally on partnerships with nations akin to Russia, which have helped it develop a strong fleet.
“The Indian Navy now has the flexibility to conduct missions that may cowl lengthy distances, all the best way right down to Mauritius close to southern Africa, and even some adventures in [the] Pacific Ocean as effectively,” he mentioned.
Because the world’s fifth-largest economic system, India has invested closely in naval growth.
In response to the Worldwide Institute for Strategic Research (IISS), a London-based analysis institute specializing in defence and safety points, India has 29 principal floor fight vessels, together with two plane carriers, 12 destroyers, 15 frigates and 18 submarines, of which two are nuclear-powered.
Pakistan, against this, has prioritised its land and air forces. Its navy has grown extra slowly, primarily via cooperation with China and Turkiye. It recurrently holds main naval workouts with its allies, with the final one going down in February this yr.
IISS information exhibits that Pakistan’s navy lacks plane carriers and destroyers however contains 11 frigates, eight submarines and at the very least 21 patrol vessels.
Obaidullah defined that Pakistan’s naval ambitions and targets are very completely different from these of India.
“India goals to mission international energy. We’ve a defensive navy to safe our sea traces of communication and deter aggression,” the previous naval officer mentioned. With greater than 95 p.c of Pakistan’s commerce sea-based, defending maritime routes is its prime precedence.
Maritime skilled Qazi additionally mentioned that the Pakistani Navy is targeted on defending its “littoral zones”. From a naval perspective, a “littoral zone” is a critically vital space near coastlines, in contrast to the open ocean’s “blue water” expanse. It’s inside this house that nations interact in coastal defence.
“Pakistan has a small economic system, and we do not need blue water ambitions. We do not need the capability to construct a fleet, nor [do] we’d like one,” Qazi mentioned. “Our defence paradigm is about defending our coastlines, and for that, we now have our submarines, which carry cruise missiles.”
Naval engagements in future conflicts?
The newest battle noticed each standard and fashionable warfare, together with drones used to strike deep inside one another’s territory. However Singh’s Might 30 remarks counsel a extra assertive naval posture in future conflicts, say analysts.
“If Pakistan does any unholy act this time, it’s attainable that the opening will probably be performed by our navy,” Singh mentioned throughout his speech on Might 30.
Bhaskar, the Indian commodore who retired in 2007, agreed that future conflicts may see naval escalation.
“If one other army battle escalates, the chance of navies being actively concerned is excessive,” he mentioned.
Bashir Ali Abbas, a New Delhi-based maritime affairs skilled and former fellow on the Stimson Middle, in Washington, DC, mentioned that naval platforms inherently serve a number of roles.
Abbas mentioned that warships and submarines can swap from patrolling missions or workouts to operational missions on quick discover. However that will carry dangers of its personal.
“Ought to the Indian Navy play a considerable position in operations in opposition to Pakistan following the following disaster, then the ingredient of escalation management virtually disappears. Any ship-on-ship, or ship-on-land engagement will suggest that India and Pakistan are at warfare,” he instructed Al Jazeera, including that the danger of inadvertent nuclear escalation can be doubtlessly highest within the nuclear area.
Qazi, nevertheless, mentioned that Singh’s assertion was ambiguous about whether or not the Indian Navy would interact in surveillance or aggression.
Any assault on Karachi, Pakistan’s financial hub, would provoke a robust response, the Lahore-based analyst mentioned.
“I imagine India will select to play conceal and search prefer it did this time,” Qazi mentioned. However he added that there was a “excessive chance” that India may assault Pakistan’s naval installations on land, together with its planes and radar stations. And that, he mentioned, was an “alarming chance”.
