OPINION | The Tech Horizon of MAHASAGAR: How Innovation Will Shape India’s Maritime Future

By Commander Rahul Verma (Retd)

Having spent two decades in naval aviation, I’ve learnt that the ocean rewards those who adapt fastest. From the bridge of a warship to the cockpit of a Sea King helicopter or the console of a remotely piloted aircraft, one truth stands out, that technology doesn’t merely enable maritime power, it defines it.

That truth echoed clearly at the Indo-Pacific Regional Dialogue (IPRD 2025) in New Delhi, where the Indian Navy articulated its future through three converging lenses, holistic security, capacity building, and capability enhancement. Each of these pillars now rests on how we leverage technology, not just to build ships and submarines, but to build the intelligence networks, autonomy layers, and decision loops that bind them together.

A New Maritime Operating System

Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Dinesh K. Tripathi, described the modern ocean as a “dynaxic battlespace” , dynamic and complex , shaped by global trade disruptions, transnational crime, and accelerating technological change.

I have lived that reality firsthand. During my deployment onboard INS Mysore in anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden, I saw how a single radar contact could shift from a fishing dhow to a pirate skiff in seconds, and how the lag between detection, decision, and engagement could decide whether a hijacking was prevented or merely recorded. That experience taught me that reaction time is the new deterrent, and every second counts in the Indian Ocean’s grey zone of uncertainty. As someone who has flown through GPS-denied zones and seen how data links can be spoofed or jammed, this warning about “near-daily episodes of electronic interference” in the Indian Ocean Region rings true. Maritime technology today offers unmatched reach but also unprecedented vulnerability

Those lessons now scale up to the strategic level. The Information Fusion Centre Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) in Gurugram has become India’s digital sentry. Its recognition by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) as a voluntary reporting centre wasn’t just a procedural win it was a vote of trust. Expanding this hub from 15 to 50 international liaison officers by 2028 will convert India’s maritime domain awareness into a shared cognitive grid, capable of pre-empting rather than merely responding.

This is the essence of the Navy’s evolving doctrine, is to turn the Indian Ocean from a “sea of concern” into a sea of connected intelligence.

MAHASAGAR: India’s Maritime Operating System

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s MAHASAGAR vision, is crystal, Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions. It is more than a diplomatic framework; it is India’s maritime operating system for the 21st century.

Where earlier we counted fleets and tonnage, the new calculus counts data flows, domain awareness, and decision superiority. MAHASAGAR redefines maritime power as a system of systems; it’s a network where every platform, sensor, and nation contributes to a collective intelligence.

Admiral Tripathi’s call to move from platform-centric to purpose-centric operations encapsulates this transition. The Navy’s doctrine is now converging with the principles of mission-based innovation (and that’s bloody important ), linking strategic intent with technological design. The key question is no longer “What platform do we have?” but “Can this platform talk, share, and decide with others in real time?”

Building the Cognitive Navy

In the AI era, victory will belong to the force that thinks faster, not just fires faster. A Cognitive Navy is one where man, machine, and data form a continuum sensing, deciding, and acting as one entity.

India is investing heavily in this vision. The Technology Development Acceleration Cell (TDAC) and Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) have begun transforming the innovation landscape. What once took years in procurement cycles can now be fielded within months through modular architectures and spiral development and I’m proud of this work as Director (innovation) during the formative year of this futuristic organisation.

The Navy’s partnerships with private industry and start-ups are also maturing. Bharat Forge, L&T, and several startups like Sagar Defence, Ancor Systems, Raphembhir, 114AI and Tardid Technology are working on indigenous UAVs, unmanned surface vessels, AI-based sensor fusion, and electronic warfare systems. The goal isn’t just to import less it’s to integrate faster. The use of AI cannot be better explained by use of Brainbox to comment on whether it was molecular layer bimetallic separation of erstwhile Nipat or proving hull stability of a corvette.

This cognitive architecture is India’s pathway to deterrence. A fleet that can sense, interpret, and act autonomously at machine speed will not just defend sea lanes, it will dominate them.

The Human-Machine Continuum

Technology by itself is inert, people animate it. The Africa-India Key Maritime Engagement (AIKEYME) and mixed-crew IOS SAGAR deployments are vivid examples of how India fuses training, trust, and technology. Each mission becomes a laboratory of interoperability, where diverse sensors and systems are harmonized through human collaboration.

During my tenure at TDAC, I realised that every new UAV or AI-enabled platform was a cultural change as much as a technical one. You don’t induct technology you absorb it into doctrine. That demands sailors and officers who are as fluent in Python, Autonomy and Telemetry as they are in seamanship and gunnery.

The Navy’s integrated training pipeline now includes cyber warfare, AI modelling, and Autonomy logic as part of operational curriculum. This isn’t just modernisation, it’s a mindset shift, turning naval operators into naval technologists.

From Coordination to Cognition

Traditional command-and-control frameworks were built for sequential wars, detect, decide, engage. That linear kill-chain is now giving way to a kill-web , a distributed, dynamic network where multiple sensors, shooters, and decision nodes interact simultaneously. This has been the topic of discussions even during the recently concluded Naval Flight Test Seminar.

In such a system, no single platform is critical, redundancy is resilience. A UAV can cue a surface ship’s missile, a satellite can feed a loitering munition; and AI can arbitrate the best shooter-sensor pair in milliseconds. This is not science fiction, it’s the architecture already being validated in Indian test ranges through multi-domain mission rehearsals.

The next frontier is cognition, beware of algorithms that don’t just process data but interpret intent. Imagine a command system that learns the commander’s decision patterns, anticipates likely courses of action, and recommends optimal options in real time. That’s the kind of decision-support the Navy’s future Network for Operations and Tactics (NETRA) envisions.

The Trust Architecture of Sea Power

Former Chief Admiral Karambir Singh said that maritime security must be “an extension of our civilisational ethos.” In the digital era, that ethos extends to data trust.

Trust will be the new deterrent knowing that every bit of data in the maritime grid is authentic, secure, and traceable. Blockchain-based data assurance, quantum-safe encryption, and AI-driven anomaly detection are becoming as critical as hull plating or radar range.

In future conflicts, information superiority will outweigh tonnage. A fleet that sees clearly, decides confidently, and acts coherently will dominate, even when outnumbered. India’s advantage lies in its capacity to integrate civil technology innovation with military doctrine. That fusion not firepower alone will define deterrence in the MAHASAGAR era.

MAHASAGAR and the Industrial Web

For MAHASAGAR to work as a doctrine, India must also think like a systems integrator. Maritime capability isn’t just about ships and submarines; it’s about the industrial web that sustains them.

This is where Bharat Forge and India’s private sector become force multipliers. The convergence of aerospace, defence manufacturing, and AI systems gives India the ability to field indigenised, export-ready solutions. By nurturing long-term “patience capital” rather than short-term profit cycles, we can create deep-tech ecosystems capable of sustaining large-scale naval innovation.

From micro-gas turbines to autonomous underwater vehicles, the future of India’s blue economy depends on connecting industrial capacity with operational demand. That’s the hidden promise of MAHASAGAR , turning industrial growth into strategic depth.

From Blue Water to Smart Water

The transformation ahead is profound, from blue water dominance to smart water dominance. The Navy of 2035 will not just be a fleet; it will be a distributed network of intelligence nodes, autonomous vessels, AI-enabled aircraft, and sensor-fused command centres.

Under MAHASAGAR, India’s ambition is not only to safeguard sea lanes but to architect the digital commons that underwrite maritime stability shared data networks, satellite connectivity, and indigenous cybersecurity protocols.

As a naval aviator turned technologist, I see our role expanding from sea control to information control, from shipbuilding to network building.

Sailing Beyond the Horizon

With 40 speakers from 19 countries, IPRD 2025 reaffirmed that maritime security is no longer about who commands the sea, but who commands the information about the sea.

Vice Admiral Pradeep Chauhan (Retd) captured this evolution perfectly when he said, “The Indo-Pacific is a geography where cooperation must trump confrontation.” In that spirit, MAHASAGAR represents more than a policy, it is India’s technological grammar for maritime cooperation, one that turns collaboration into capability and information into influence.

From anti-piracy patrols off Somalia, where Indian warships and naval aviators like us once guarded global commerce against chaos, to today’s experiments in AI-driven naval cognition, India’s journey tells a single story that adaptability is the ultimate sea power. What began with radar blips on pirate skiffs has evolved into algorithms that detect threats across vast oceans.

Our maritime destiny, therefore, will not be shaped by steel and sensors alone, but by our ability to connect minds and machines, humans and algorithms, fleets and data streams. The ocean is no longer just a battlespace, it is becoming an intelligent ecosystem, alive with decision loops and learning networks.

If we design it right, the future ocean will be cognitive, not chaotic, a realm where India leads not by tonnage, but by trust, technology, and thought.That is the true horizon of MAHASAGAR: a future where maritime strength is measured not.

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About the Author

Commander Rahul Verma (Retd) is an Emerging Technology and Prioritisation Scout with one of India’s leading conglomerates, driving force modernisation through cutting-edge innovation in aerospace and defence. A decorated naval aviator with over two decades of service, he has flown the Sea King helicopter, commanded Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPAS) missions, and served as a Flying Instructor shaping the next generation of naval aircrew.

As part of the Indian Navy’s Technology Development Acceleration Cell (TDAC), he spearheaded initiatives that bridged frontline operations with advanced technology development, laying the groundwork for unmanned, autonomous, and AI-driven capabilities now entering service.

Today, he continues to work at the intersection of technology, doctrine, and strategy, advancing India’s vision of self-reliant defence. His insights combine cockpit realism with boardroom foresight, making him one of the rare voices equally fluent in aviation, innovation, and strategy.