Indian Navy in Goa

There is some confusion surrounding the Indian Navy's operations at Dabolim. A careful analysis of the Navy's present operations and its stated plans show that the Navy plans to vacate most of Dabolim airport within a decade at most. What may be left are the IL-38 maritime reconnaissance aircraft.

History of the Navy at Dabolim

The actual Naval Air Base at Dabolim is called INS Hansa. INS Hansa was set up in 1964. Let’s look at the context for INS Hansa. INS Vikrant was commissioned in 1961. It is clear that after the China debacle in 1962, defence spending was stepped up considerably. The Mumbai airport, which was then being used for naval fighter training, was also seeing a rise in passenger flights.

Dabolim airport was set up in 1955. Until liberation, there were flights from Portugal by TAIP and TAP. However, the flights were not very frequent, at best once a day. Post liberation, in 1964, there was exactly one civilian flight into Dabolim, a Dakota from Mumbai.

Dabolim airport was used once a day, situated on the coast and at a superb natural harbour (Mormugao). It was a natural choice for setting up a new base, not too far from Mumbai (where the Vikrant was stationed.) It is not clear whether the paperwork was done properly, etc., but the rationale at a national level is clear. It is easy to look back from 2013 to say that it was a not the right decision, but in 1964, it is hard to justify not using a good airport for the Navy when only 1 flight was landing each day.

 

Present operations of the Navy at Dabolim

From a national security standpoint, Dabolim is currently a poor choice for a naval air base. There are thousands of foreigners flying in and out of the airport. That itself creates a significant risk of foreign surveillance, potentially even on foreign aircraft landing at Dabolim. Further, the large foreign population resident in Goa creates a situation where Naval officers can be lured into honeypot situations to give away national secrets.

At INS Hansa, the Navy currently operates 8 squadrons. You can read about each of these squadrons in great detail here and here.

 

Squadron	Aircraft	Role
INAS 551 "Phantoms"	Kiran Mk1 /2 / Hawk AJT	Jet trainers
INAS 552 "Braves"	Sea Harrier Trainer	Fighter trainer aircraft
INAS 300 "White Tigers"	Sea Harrier	Fighter aircraft
INAS 303 "Black Panthers"	MIG-29K /KUB	Fighter aircraft
INAS 310 "Cobras"	Dornier 228 - 201 IW	Maritime patrol, electronic warfare
INAS 321 "Angels"	Chetak helicopters	Search-and-Rescue helicopters
INAS 339 "Falcons"	Kamov 31 AEW helicopters	Airborne early warning helicopters
INAS 315 "Winged Stallions"	IL 38	Maritime reconnaissance, anti-submarine warfare

New Naval Air Stations near Goa

Karwar Airport is currently planned to be a small facility of 52 hectares (128 acres) with an airstrip serving helicopters and Dornier-228. This would require a runway of at most 1,000 mtrs. Since this is an integral part of Project Seabird, it has a high probability of fructifying.

Less well publicised is the fact that the Indian Navy has a very significant participation in the expansion of Sambra Airport at Belgaum. The plan includes the acquisition by the Indian Navy of 420 acres (Dabolim civil enclave is only 35 acres) and basing the MIG-29s (for INS Vikramaditya) at Belgaum for training purposes.

If we look at the Navy's plans, we can see the following :

The Sea Harriers are scheduled for de-commissioning somewhere between 2015 and 2023.

MIG-29K will move to Belgaum.

It is reasonable to assume that the jet trainers, viz, the Hawk AJTs, will also move to Belgaum, along with the Mig29K.

The Dornier 228s will move to Karwar.

The helicopters (Chetaks and Kamow 31 AEW) will move to Karwar. It is clear that the only aircraft that may still operate at Dabolim is the IL-38 (and possibly its replacement, the Boeing P-8i Neptune). This would imply that most of the Navy's space at Dabolim will get freed up for Civil operations.

It is likely that since Belgaum will be able to handle B-737s/A-320s, it will be able to handle IL-38 / Boeing P8is (the Boeing P8is are built on a B-737 frame). However, I have not been able to find out the runway length needed for these aircraft.

This analysis is based on a few scanty pieces of information. However, it seems quite logical from a national security perspective. However, for security reasons, I don’t think the Navy will confirm this publicly any time soon.

Clearly, the politicians need to have a conversation with the Indian Navy ! And soon.

Update : This post has been edited on 13-Jun-2013 to bring in the history of the Naval presence at Dabolim, and the speculation as to why Belgaum and Karwar are being developed. This is in line with the article published in the Herald Review on 2-Jun-2013 titled "Is Navy planning to vacate Dabolim ?"