ABSTRACT
Comparing U.S. and Indian naval modernization is a bit like comparing apples and oranges, mainly because these countries have very different requirements and objectives for their respective navies. India is mainly concerned with projecting naval power into the Indian Ocean, while the U.S. Navy (USN) has a global mission of both patrolling the high seas and, increasingly, engaging in expeditionary littoral warfare. Nevertheless, both countries are engaged in significant modernization efforts intended to increase their capacities for force projection. In this process of modernizing, however, each faces a different set of challenges that threaten to undermine its endeavors. In the case of the USN, its modernization process is mainly driven by its overriding priority on operating at the highest technological levels possible, and, therefore, on possessing the most technologically advanced military systems available; this emphasis, however, on “having the best money can buy” has resulted in disastrous cost overruns in the attempt to assimilate untested technologies, while additionally creating an internalized “arms race with itself.” For its part, the modernization of the Indian Navy (IN) is basically hobbled by a bureaucratic procurement system and an overriding emphasis on indigenous production, both of which operating together are straining the nation’s already limited shipbuilding capabilities.
