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New Indian Express
14-05-2025
- General
- New Indian Express
When Indian missile boats struck Karachi in 1971 Indo-Pak war
KOCHI: The Arabian Sea was silent, still as death, as three missile boats moved stealthily under the cover of darkness from Okha in Gujarat towards Karachi in Pakistan. It was a suicidal mission, almost! The sailors, however, had only one thought on their minds — strike the targets successfully. These events of the night of December 4, 1971, replayed in retired Indian Navy officer Commodore A D Rao's mind as reports poured in of the escalation of the confrontation between India and Pakistan after the Pahalgam attack. The mission carried out as part of Operation Trident proved a resounding success, that too at a time when technology was not as advanced as today. 'Everything was top secret,' Commodore Rao, who was 27 at the time and belonged to the 25th Missile Squadron, tells TNIE. 'Even the transportation of the boats, made by the Russians, was done in a very clandestine manner. India had bought eight boats of the OSA class fitted with the Styx missiles. Operation Trident was also the first time that India used the Indian Navy's missile boats and anti-ship missiles in war.' Living in Kochi for more than 30 years, Rao recalls how he found himself in the middle of a fierce war four years after getting commissioned into the Navy as an officer. 'It seemed as if the four years of training and related activities were a sort of preparation for the war,' he says. Elaborating on the mission and the strategies adopted, Rao says, 'The plan was to launch a quick attack on Karachi and then run. We were told to write letters to our families before leaving for the mission in the dead of the night from Mumbai on December 3. Of the eight missile boats, the three that were sent for the mission were INS Nipat, INS Nirghat and INS Veer. I was on INS Veer, which was commanded by Lieutenant Commander Om Prakash Mehta, as the third officer.'
The Hindu
10-05-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
Can India repeat Operation Trident of 1971?
During the India-Pakistan war in December 1971, the Indian Navy had unleashed its fury and firepower on the neighbouring country's harbour in Karachi. The operations conducted in two phases were titled Operation Trident (December 4 to 5) and Operation Python (December 8 to 9). The Indian Navy had deployed its Vidyut-class missile boats such as INS Nirghat and INS Veer from the Okha port, and completely destroyed at least four Pakistan Naval ships, one merchant ship carrying ammunition, and the fuel and ammunition depot in Karachi. That was a decisive moment, as India had Pakistan by its jugular vein, which pushed its economy into a shambles. Now, with Pakistan resorting to attacks after India launched Operation Sindoor post the Pahalgam terror attack, will India be able to repeat the 1971 heroics. Senior defence experts say that it is the ultimate, and it appears to be in the offing. Comparing the 1971 operations with the present situation, a senior defence analyst says, 'Then we had the technology, thought it was vintage, on our side. We had P-15 Termit cruise missiles, also known as Styx missiles. On the other hand, Pakistan did not have any missile and it was a new warfare for it. Though the missiles were vintage and were products of World War II, they wrecked havoc.' The Indian Navy is a blue water force today with two aircraft carriers (INS Vikrant and INS Vikramaditya) and nuclear submarines that can launch nuclear tipped cruise and conventional missiles, silently and unnoticed from the depths of the ocean, complementing and completing the nuclear triad. Also read | Defence Ministry signs contracts worth ₹2,500 crore for anti-tank missile systems, light vehicles 'Numerically, India is way ahead with its assets that includes at least two operational nuclear submarines and two aircraft carriers,' the experts say. Both the countries today have ship-based missiles and are equipped with state-of-the-art radars. 'But what can be the decisive punch is that India possesses a few well-stocked hi-tech weapons like the ship-based anti-ship missiles (Brahmos, Exocet and Harpoon), ship-based ballistic missiles such as Dhanush and Lora, and submarine-based Sagarika and K-4 and K-5 series, and a host of surface-to-air missiles such as Barak and air-to-air strike weapons such as Astra-MK series and Rampage,' the experts observe. 'We need to attack and choke Pakistan in Karachi, economically and logistically. We have the aircraft carriers for gaining Sea Control and the submarines for Sea Denial,' they say.
