Deployment of women on warships will be a major breakthrough as it will open up combat roles that are currently restricted in the defence forces.
The Indian Navy is exploring the possibility of deploying women on warships soon, Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba told Zee News in an exclusive interview.
Speaking about the role of women, he said women are part of combat performing duties as tactical operators in maritime patrol aircraft, but because of less numbers, they have not been posted on warships.
"The number of lady officers in the Navy is small in the sea going branches. So we also need a critical mass, we need to have minimum number of ladies on each ship. That is under examination. We will make a decision sooner or later," he said.
Deployment of women on warships will be a major breakthrough as it will open up combat roles that are currently restricted in the defence forces.
In the freewheeling interview, Admiral Lanba also talked about the Navy's diplomacy and forging stronger ties in the neighbourhood to enhance its global outreach and take on an aggressive China that has made forays into the Indian Ocean Region.
"We can have a better knowledge of the maritime domain and assist our partners in enhancing capability and extend the reach of the Indian Navy," he said.
Through the global outreach, Indian Navy hopes to ensure the safety and security of the region.
Admiral Lanba said the Indian Navy has been working with island nations and other likeminded nations providing them training, transfer of assets and agreements to use each other's facilities.
"We have shared our expertise with our maritime neighbours, with their navies and we have learnt from each other."
Speaking about the increasing Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean Region, he said, any nation's ships can operate in the high seas.
"Chinese ships and submarines have been active in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) since 2008. We keep a close eye and carried out a new mission based deployment was carried out."
Talking about the naval diplomacy aimed at increasing the outreach, he said the Milan exercise beginning in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands from Tuesday has 16 nations participating. When the exercise started, there were only five countries that participated.
Last year, the Indo-US exercise at Malabar had a new partner for the first time. The navies of India, US and Japan took part in the exercise.
"We are exercising to learn and gain from each other's expertise and we are like minded countries, democratic countries and we all uphold international good order."
The Chief said that the Indian Navy is a multi-dimensional force that can operate in the air and in the waters and has the capability of being able to reach any part of the Indian Ocean or the world.
Speaking on the Navy's future plans to enhance its firepower in eastern waters of Andaman & Nicobar Island he said, the Indian Navy has already based additional ships which are weapon intensive, have the capabilities of carrying helicopters.
"Similarly other assets have been based by the army and the Air Force. It's a tri services company command and we have a 10 year development plan in place for augmentation of infrastructure and capability of command.
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