10-05-2025
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.
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'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.
