INDIAN NAVY

3. New Naval Ensign

• The new ensign has the national flag on the upper canton(top left corner) & a blue octagon encompassing the National Emblem sitting atop an anchor.
• The anchor, depicting steadfastness has now been imposed on a shield inscribed with the Navy’s motto, Sam No Varunah in Devanagari.
• The octagonal shape represents the eight directions, symbolizing the Navy’s multi-directional reach & operational capability.
• The octagon, with a golden double border, has inspired by the Raja Murray seal of the Maratha emperor Shivaji, which was adopted when he was 16 years old.
• The new Naval ensign has replaced the one that carried the Saint George’s Cross with the Tricolor in the canton.
• The ensign was essentially a successor to the pre-independence ensign of the Indian Navy which had the Red George’s Cross on a white background with the Union Jack of the United Kingdom in the top left corner.

4. Marathas & Indian Navy

• Indian Navy always acknowledged the sea-faring prowess of the Maratha empire under Shivaji.
• It has been named a training establishment in Lonavla INS Shivaji and a shore-based logistics & administrative hub of Western Naval Command, Mumbai INS Angre.
• The use of the octagonal design of the seal of Shivaji on the new Naval Ensign is a formal stamp on the umbilical ties of the Indian Navy with the navy of the Maratha empire.

5. Shivaji’s Navy

• Shivaji’s empire reached the west coast after 1656-5 when his dominions touched Kalyan.
• In the same year, he decided to establish a navy to protect his territory from the Siddis and to secure ports & merchant ships to ensure smooth maritime trading that brought in revenue & customs duty.
• His vision for establishing a naval wing of his military was based on his belief in ‘Jalameva yasya, balameva tasya’(he who rules over the seas is powerful).
• Between 1661-1663, the naval wing of the Maratha empire came into existence, its peak included 400 old ships.
• These included battleships, other vessels of varying shapes, and purposes like pal, grab, trade, etc.
• According to ‘A History of the Maratha Navy & Merchant ships,’ Shivaji’s navy tasted its first success when he used 85 ships to attack Basuru.
• Shivaji also ordered the construction of the naval fort, the Vijaydrug, the twin to Sindhudarg fort in 1653.
• Many of the forts remained unconquered and were used by Marathas for strategic purposes to keep a watch on enemies approaching via the sea.
• The Maratha Navy continued to be a formidable force even after Shivaji, led by admirals like Angre.
• The Maratha empire fought the Mughals, the Dutch, and the English at sea and held its own against all of them.

6. From Vikrant to Vikrant

• The original INS Vikrant, with pennant number R11, was the Indian Navy's first aircraft carrier.
• It was purchased by India from the UK in 1957 and was commissioned in the Indian Navy as INS Vikrant in 1961.
• The ship, which had less than half the displacement of the new Vikrant and was 50 m shorter in length, led the Naval blockade of East Pakistan during the 1971 war.
• It was decommissioned in 1997.
• The Sanskrit word Vikrant means Courageous or steeping beyond, which appears in various scriptures including the first chapter of the Bhagavad Gita.
• The same chapter contains the word viraat, meaning magnanimous, which became the name of the Navy's second, now decossioned, aircraft carrier.
• The new Vikrant will carry the motto of its predecessor, Jayema sam yudhi sprudhah an expression that appears in the Rig Veda and means " We conquer those who fight us in war".
• When fully operational, INS Vikrant will be India's airbase on the blue oceans and act as a powerful deterrent against enemies.

• BrahMos is a two-stage missile with a solid propellant booster engine. Its first stage brings the missile to supersonic speed and then gets separated.
• The liquid ramjet or the second stage then takes s the missile closer to three times the speed of sound in the cruise phase.
• The missile has a very low radar signature, making it stealthy and can achieve a variety of trajectories.
• The ‘fire and forget type of missile can achieve a cruising altitude of 15km and a terminal altitude as low as 10 m to hit the target.
• Cruise missiles such as BrahMos called ‘standoff range weapons’’ are fired from a range far enough to allow the attacker to evade defensive counterfire
• The BrahMos has three times the speed, 2.5 times the flight range and higher range compared to subsonic cruise missiles.
• With missiles made available for export, the platform is also seen as a key asset in defence diplomacy.
• On Jan 11, an advanced sea-to-sea variant of BrahMos was tested from the newly commissioned INS Visakhapatnam.
• What makes the missile system unparallel is its extreme accuracy and versatility.
• Its version currently being tested include ranges up to 350 km as compared to the original’s 290 km. versions with even higher ranges up to 800 km and with hypersonic speed are said to be on cards.

8.1 Versions of BrahMos

• LAND BASED-It has four to six mobile autonomous launchers, each with three missiles on board that can be fired almost simultaneously. The upgraded land-attack version, with the capability of cruising at 2.8 Mach, can hit targets at a range of up to 400 km with precision. Advanced versions of higher range and speed up to 5 Mach are said to be under development.
• SHIP BASED-the Navy began inducting BrahMos on its frontline warships in 2005. These can hit sea-based targets beyond the radar horizon. The Naval version has been successful in Sea –to- sea and Sea –to –Land modes, The BrahMos can be launched as a single unit or in a salvo of up to eight missiles, separated by 2.5-second intervals.
• AIR LAUNCHED-On November 22, 2017, BrahMos was successfully flight-tested for the first time from a Sukhoi -30MKI against a sea-based target in the Bay of Bengal.
• BrahMos-equipped Sukhoi -30s which have a range of 1500 km at a stretch without mid-air refuelling, are considered key strategic deterrence for adversaries both along land borders and in the strategically important Indian Ocean region.
• The IAF is said to be integrating BrahMos with 40 Sukhoi-30fighter jets across the various bases.
• SUBMARINE LAUNCHED-this version can be launched from around 50 m below the water surface.
• The canister–stored missile is launched vertically from the pressure hull of the submarine and uses different settings for underwater and the water flights
• This version was successfully tested first in March 2013 from a submerged platform off the coast of Visakhapatnam.

For Prelims & Mains