India Flexes Muscle in Red Sea, Sends Ten Warships to Deter Houthis

Killer squadron warship INS Vipul demonstrates use of surface to …
Niharika Kulkarni/NurPhoto via Getty Images
John Hayward

India declined to join President Joe Biden’s “Operation Prosperity Guardian” security initiative for the Red Sea, but senior Indian Navy officials said they had dispatched ten warships on Monday to deter the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen and other pirates.

“Indian warships are deployed all over the region to enhance surveillance and deterrence against the twin threats from pirates and drone strikes. The aim is to help stabilize the situation in the Arabian Sea and promote net maritime security,” an Indian naval officer told the Times of India (TOI) on Monday.

TOI reported India has dispatched three more guided-missile destroyers plus two frigates to join the INS Chennai, the guided-missile destroyer that foiled a hijacking attempt by pirates off the coast of Somalia on Thursday. The Indian Navy said the incident, combined with a hijacking and drone attack in December, made it clear that threats were moving closer to India’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

“Our warships have investigated a large number of vessels plying in the region,” another Indian Navy officer told TOI. “Several have been boarded by marine commandos.”

The second officer was eager to dispel the “misconception” that Indian warships are not as well-equipped to repel drone attacks as the U.S. and British navies, which have been remarkably successful at shooting down Houthi drones. The officer said India’s ships carry “a variety of guns, short- and medium-range air defense missiles,” and “some jammers that can be used if a situation warrants.”

India’s growing presence in the Arabian and Red Sea theater includes several long-range intelligence aircraft and drones, including U.S.-built models like the P-8 maritime patrol plane and MQ-9B Sea Guardian drone. Although India is not a formal member of the U.S.-led Operation Prosperity Guardian, TOI’s source said India is sharing data from these aircraft with the U.S., British, and French navies.

“As a rising great power in its own right, India maintains its desire to play a larger and more proactive role as a responsible security and development partner and provider, not only in the Indian Ocean Region but also the greater Indo-Pacific region,” Philippine-based geopolitical analyst Don McLain Gill told U.S. Naval Institute News (USNI) on Sunday.

The Indian Navy released photos and videos of its Marine Commandos (MARCOS) rescuing the hijacked ship MV Lila Norfolk on Thursday, including a video of the Indian and Filipino crew thanking the MARCOS for their help:

The Indian Navy said the exact identity of the hijackers remained unknown because the crew of MV Lila Norfolk took shelter inside a fortified safe room during the attack, and the hijackers fled at the approach of the Indian warship INS Chennai.

“Upon reaching the targeted ship, the Indian Navy’s marine commandos executed a meticulous sanitization of the area. Interestingly, the pirates were not visible on the ship during the operation,” Indian Navy chief Admiral R Hari Kumar said on Sunday.

“It seems that after seeing our aircraft and drones operating all over the ship hijacked by them, the pirates ran away from the Lili [sic] Norfolk on the night of 4-5 January itself. The Marine Commandos had to sanitize the vessel for any traps or other issues,” he said.

India was almost certainly one of the early countries the Biden administration approached to join Operation Prosperity Guardian, whose membership list has been somewhat furtive. The administration claims that more than 20 countries are participating but has only named about a dozen of them, and many of them are contributing only “staff or other types of support.”

Some of the anonymous participants are said to be afraid of diplomatic or terrorist retaliation if they join an alliance against the Houthis, an Iranian terrorist proxy that claims it has blockaded the Red Sea to punish Israel for its military operation against Hamas.

According to the Marine Insight News Network (MI), such is the case with India, which the U.S. allegedly invited to join Operation Prosperity Guardian in January, but it has not yet accepted the invitation because it is “concerned about a possible escalation of hostilities.”

The U.S. embassy to India declined to discuss negotiations over joining Operation Prosperity Guardian, while the Indian Foreign Ministry would say only that India is “very interested in facilitating the free flow of commercial shipping.”

“We welcome other countries, including India, in joining us to defend the freedom of navigation in the region’s vital waterways, including by participating in Operation Prosperity Guardian,” the U.S. embassy told the Mint news network on Thursday.

On Monday, the Pakistani Navy said it has also deployed warships in the Arabian Sea to protect Pakistan’s trade routes. Pakistani naval officials said they were motivated to send their own ships after their rival, India, beefed up its presence and used force to rescue MV Lila Norfolk from pirates.

“Pakistan’s decision to deploy warships in the Arabian Sea to maintain its maritime security in international waters and not to help a specific country against Yemen’s Houthis militants,” the Pakistani Navy declared.

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