Best and worst: preparing navies for all possible worlds Jane’s Navy International
Nor should the increasing tensions between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, marked by continuing artillery exchanges on their northern border, be ignored. Their relations will continue to shape their naval development. Although both of their navies do many other things, the building of a warfighting capability that will deter the other side remains their top priority in both operational and acquisition terms. The realisation of how vulnerable its navy ships were to Pakistan’s Harpoon missiles during the 1999 Kargil conflict led the Indian Navy to invest heavily in a research programme with Israel that produced the 70 km-range Barak-8 anti-missile missile. Likewise, the news that Pakistan is to acquire eight submarines from China, alongside the appearance of Chinese nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs) in the Indian Ocean, has seen India galvanise its submarine acquisition programme.
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