The Indian Navy and Coast Guard are facing force depletions and the government should expeditiously augment induction of warships, submarines and surveillance aircraft to maintain optimum operational readiness, a Parliamentary Committee has said.
Though the sanctioned strength of the navy is 140 warships and submarines, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence in its latest report tabled in Parliament said at present tghe navy only had 129 warships and submarines.
"We are concerned to note that the navy's strength as on date is much short of the required strength", the committee said.
On the Coast Guard, the report said the gulf was much wider as compared to the assessed requirement of 154 ships, 93 boats and 105 aircraft.
The organisation's existing strength was just 43 ships, 45 aircrafts and 18 boats and crafts.
"There are capabilites gap in the surface surveillance, even in shallow water operations as well as aerial surveillance," the members of Parliament felt.
With surveillance of the country's coastline acquiring strategic dimensions, the committee called for enhancement of budgetary allocation for the Coast Guard to enable it to build up force levels.
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