OPINION | Rising Tide: Indian Navy’s Strategic Expansion of Anti-Submarine Fleet to Counter Sino-Pak Naval Collaboration

By Aritra Banerjee

India is racing to stay a step ahead beneath the waves, pouring unprecedented resources into antisubmarine warfare as Chinese and Pakistani navies knit together an undersea alliance. New hulls, wings and rotorcraft are arriving at a tempo unseen since Independence, giving the Indian Navy fresh reach from the Strait of Malacca to the Gulf of Oman.

Why the Arabian Sea Is Suddenly Crowded

Beijing has pledged eight Hangor-class submarines and four Tughril-class frigates to Islamabad, a package worth more than $5 billion that were supposed to be delivered by 2028 but are running significantly behind scheduld. Two Hangor boats and the first Tughril frigates have already been launched in Wuhan and Shanghai, each bristling with Chinese sensors, torpedoes and YJ-83 cruise missiles. These vessels will join PLAN detachments that now make routine calls at Karachi and Gwadar, a port where Chinese naval presence is openly discussed by both governments. For New Delhi, the spectre of dual-flag submarine patrols hugging India’s west coast is no longer theoretical; Pakistani officers hint that the new boats will carry nuclear-tipped Babur missiles, amplifying the threat of a maritime second-strike posture.

Indigenous Hulls Form the First Ring of Defence

Delhi’s answer starts at home. Project 28 Kamorta-class stealth corvettes, INS Kamorta, Kadmatt, Kiltan and Kavaratti were designed in-house with 90 percent indigenous content and are optimised for hunting submarines in monsoon-rough littorals. Their X-form hulls and composite superstructures cut radar returns while bow sonars and heavyweight torpedoes give sharp claws in blue water. Even more numerous will be the 16 Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft; the lead ship INS Arnala commissioned in June 2025, the rest following by 2028 under ₹12,622 crore in “Make in India” contracts with GRSE and Cochin Shipyard. Together these 20 warships create a picket line that any Hangor or Yuan boat must cross to reach the Indian coast.

Sub-Surface Deterrence Through Project 75 and 75(I)

While surface hunters multiply, India is also refreshing its own underwater arm. Five French-designed Kalvari-class Scorpenes are already on patrol, and the sixth will join them later this year. The follow-on Project 75(I) will add six 3,000-tonne boats with air-independent propulsion, able to lurk for fortnight-long stretches that match, and in some regimes exceed, the endurance of Pakistan’s forthcoming fleet. By the mid-2030s, India expects to field at least 18 modern attack submarines against Pakistan’s projected 11, restoring a favourable 3:2 ratio even after Chinese transfers mature. 

Long-Range Eyes and Ears in the Sky

The Indian Navy’s submarine chasers are not confined to steel decks. Twelve Boeing P-8I Poseidon aircraft, the world’s gold standard for maritime patrol, already sweep 1,200-nautical-mile arcs with Harpoon missiles, torpedoes and sonobuoy patterns. Four more have been delivered to INS Hansa in Goa and six additional airframes are under negotiation, each wired for encrypted COMCASA links that fuse data directly into fleet combat systems. During Ladakh’s crisis, these jets proved their versatility by tracking Chinese armour, underscoring the value of multispectral sensors that leap seamlessly from mountains to mid-ocean. 

The Helicopter Gap Closes

For deck-based prosecution, India turned to the US Navy’s frontline hunter: the MH-60R Seahawk. Ten have arrived, with the remaining 14 to touch down by 2026 under a ₹14,000 crore Foreign Military Sales agreement. Armed with ALFS dipping sonar, Hellfire missiles and Mk-54 torpedoes, each twin-engine helicopter converts every destroyer and frigate into a mobile ASW node, shrinking the engagement cycle from minutes to seconds. The Seahawks are already embarked on Rajput- and Visakhapatnam-class destroyers, practicing cooperative tactics with P-8Is that overwhelm evading submarines through pincer geometry. 

Digital Cohesion and Indigenous Sensors

Hardware is only as sharp as the network that binds it. The Navy’s new Information Management and Analysis Centre near Gurgaon fuses satellite cues, coastal radar chains and automatic identification feeds into a common operating picture that all ASW units can query in real time. Indigenous firms—from BEL to Mahindra Defence—supply sonars, torpedo decoys and data-link terminals for Arnala craft and Kamorta corvettes, lifting local content above 80 percent and reducing sanctions risk. This ecosystem gives commanders freedom to experiment rapidly with acoustic libraries tailored to the thermocline quirks of the Arabian Sea, where Chinese diesel boats must snorkel often and betray tell-tale signatures.

Strategic Signalling and Forward Presence

Operationally, India has stepped up deployments to the Gulf of Aden, the Seychelles and the Sunda Strait, often pairing P-8Is with Kamorta-class escorts to signal 360-degree vigilance. The Navy’s annual Exercise Malabar now contains dedicated anti-submarine serials with US, Japanese and Australian forces, ensuring that interoperable tracking of Chinese hulls extends from Australia’s Cocos Islands to Djibouti. Each patrol reinforces the message that the Indian Ocean is not a permissive environment for extra-regional submarines, no matter how many docking rights Gwadar promises.

When the eighth Hangor slips past Sir Creek later this decade, it will confront an Indian Navy that fields more corvettes, better helicopters, submarine hunters, and a new generation of silent submarines and the world’s most capable maritime patrol aircraft. Far from conceding the underwater domain, India is converting Sino-Pak collaboration into a catalyst for self-reliance and innovation. The race is on, but the rising tide favours the side building at home, training with friends and mastering the ocean’s hardest game.

About Author

Aritra Banerjee is a Defence, Foreign Affairs & Aerospace Journalist, Co-Author of the book ‘The Indian Navy @75: Reminiscing the Voyage’ and was the Co-Founder of Mission Victory India (MVI), a new-age military reforms think-tank. He has worked in TV, Print and Digital media, and has been a columnist writing on strategic affairs for national and international publications. His reporting career has seen him covering major Security and Aviation events in Europe and travelling across Kashmir conflict zones. Twitter: @Aritrabanned