Lacking firepower

Two indigenous warship-building programmes are feeding the Indian Coast Guard with Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) that are seriously lacking in combat capability. The navy ensures that each of its OPVs comes fitted with a radar-controlled, 76-millimetre Otomelara gun, but the Coast Guard arms its OPVs with nothing more than a 30-millimetre gun and a couple of smaller-calibre machine guns. While it is true that the Coast Guard operates only within India’s 200-nautical mile maritime zone, there are valid concerns about whether they have the firepower that is essential for dealing with new-age maritime threats from terrorists, pirates, gun-runners, and other