Game Changer 2 : India makes headway with ELF site construction

[Defcon5]

India makes headway with ELF site construction
By James Hardy

3/4/2013

Imagery taken by DigitalGlobe in January 2013 provides an update on the construction of India's new Extremely Low-Frequency (ELF) facility in the south of the country.

The construction began in March 2012, when Admiral Nirmal Verma, chief of the naval staff of the Indian Navy (IN), laid the cornerstone for the ELF facility near the village of Vijaya Narayanam, about 23 km north of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu. It is co-located with the IN's Very Low-Frequency (VLF) communications station, which transmits at 18.2 kHz.

The ELF station, which is believed to be being built by Indian firm Larsen & Toubro, will have nuclear-hardened bunkers and is expected to be commissioned in 2015. Russia is closely associated with the research and development for the facility, which is expected to be similar to Russia's own ELF transmitter at the ZEVS facility near Murmansk.

ELF transmission is used to communicate very brief commands to submerged submarines. Such transmissions can travel thousands of miles and through extended depths of seawater. ELF transmissions are generally initiated during circumstances in which conventional communications channels have been disrupted or destroyed.

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India makes headway with ELF site construction


India is the only country after USA and Russia to have a ELF system.

[Defcon5]

View image: Indian Naval Base South Vijayanarayanam


Indian Navy's VLF and ELF (Under Construction) Facility, South Vijayanarayanam, Tamil Nadu.
Via Google Maps

Com Towers Marked with Green Circles.

[Officer of Engineers]

A solution looking for a problem. The current set of Indian subs will never venture far enough for this system to be effective over others.

[Blademaster]

A solution looking for a problem. The current set of Indian subs will never venture far enough for this system to be effective over others.

Well at least the IN are getting the basic blocks for a durable blue water navy built. Rome wasn't built overnight and neither is a blue water navy.

[bolo121]

Well at least the IN are getting the basic blocks for a durable blue water navy built. Rome wasn't built overnight and neither is a blue water navy.

I think OOE has a very good point here. We are talking of a couple of decades at least before we have proper subs that can survive far out all by themselves.
Currently I think we are planning on doing what the chinese do, keep your boomers near shore under land based protection.
Who knows where technology will be at that time, this facility will be obsolete before it ever sees operational use.
Some scam must be the motive for putting the cart before the horse like this.

[Tronic]

This is a part of India's long term technological capability building, rather than an immediate defence requirement. Part of the 'Swaraj' policy. A decade or two back, we also couldn't imagine Indian built SLBMs being launched from Indian built boomers; yet today, they both exist. Building a few ELF sites gives the navy and the defence labs exposure to the technology and a stepping stone to further evolve the doctrine and technology as and when required. These technologies are not meant to fill in short term requirements, but long term goals.

It's somewhat akin to the IAF practicing long distance bombing sorties, flying out from the Andamans all the way to the Western border in Rajasthan and back (a distance of about 5600km). This doesn't mean that the IAF will be flying half way across the world to carry out a bombing sortie anytime soon, but it gives the IAF, and the defence labs, exposure to develop doctrine and technologies for the pilots to be able to gradually conduct such missions over time. It's all about long term exposure and technological capability building, rather than any short term requirements for such.

Some scam must be the motive for putting the cart before the horse like this.

Sometimes it's dangerous to brand everything as a scam.

[Officer of Engineers]

Well at least the IN are getting the basic blocks for a durable blue water navy built. Rome wasn't built overnight and neither is a blue water navy.

For what? Are you telling me that the British and French can't communicate with their boomers during times of nuclear war?

[Blademaster]

For what? Are you telling me that the British and French can't communicate with their boomers during times of nuclear war?

I am not privy to Indian navy's and strategic planners' long term plans. Then it means that the British and French boomers are significantly at risk of being compromised by a first strike on national command release authority.

[Officer of Engineers]

I am not privy to Indian navy's and strategic planners' long term plans. Then it means that the British and French boomers are significantly at risk of being compromised by a first strike on national command release authority.

The means of communications, which is what this thing is, has no bearing on how a NCA can survive or not.

[Blademaster]

The means of communications, which is what this thing is, has no bearing on how a NCA can survive or not.

What I meant is that they can no longer receive secured communications while being deep underwater. They would have to resurface to get messages.

[Officer of Engineers]

What I meant is that they can no longer receive secured communications while being deep underwater. They would have to resurface to get messages.

Red herring. You have to surface to launch.

And this is stupid

ELF transmission is used to communicate very brief commands to submerged submarines. Such transmissions can travel thousands of miles and through extended depths of seawater. ELF transmissions are generally initiated during circumstances in which conventional communications channels have been disrupted or destroyed.

If regular sig stations are at risk, then so is this station. There is nothing unusual about its construction that would give it a leg up over others.

[Tronic]

Red herring. You have to surface to launch.

Sir, when the whole idea is deterrence, if things get to that stage, you've already lost.

And this is stupid

If regular sig stations are at risk, then so is this station. There is nothing unusual about its construction that would give it a leg up over others.

There is...

The ELF station, which is believed to be being built by Indian firm Larsen & Toubro, will have nuclear-hardened bunkers...

Coupled with a low SNR, it makes these stations much more viable as backup lines of communications, than your regular sig stations.

[Officer of Engineers]

Sir, when the whole idea is deterrence, if things get to that stage, you've already lost.

It's sigs. We know you will get the signal out one way or the other. This adds to warfighting. It does not add to deterrence. It does not add to the survival of your NCA nor of your nuclear delivery assets.

There is...

Coupled with a low SNR, it makes these stations much more viable as backup lines of communications, than your regular sig stations.

Again, nothing special. Your NCA would have all of this and more ... and since the site is known, it would be target for attack and re-attack until it is certain that it is knocked out.

[xinhui]

I normally don't comment on India related affairs but I too failed to see how this could translate into a "game changer". SSBN by itself will not change the strategic calculation via both the PRC and Pakistan. An enhancement maybe, but game changer? not the next 10 years.

[Officer of Engineers]

DEFCON5 is being melodramatic.