Articles By Vice Adm (Retd) GM Hiranandani
Indian Navy: Underwater Ranges
By: Vice Adm (Retd) GM Hiranandani | Issue: Book Excerpt: Transition to Guardianship: The Indian Navy 1991-2000 | Date: 04 Dec , 2022
The simplest and economical way to incapacitate ships and submarines is to damage their underwater hull by use of explosives so that the hull gets flooded with seawater and it sinks. Two types of...
Making of Indigenous Aircraft Carrier
By: Vice Adm (Retd) GM Hiranandani | Issue: Book Excerpt: Transition to Guardianship: The Indian Navy 1991-2000 | Date: 24 Apr , 2022
The project for an Indigenous Aircraft Carrier took shape in 1979. Under the terms of the Indo–French MOU of 1988, an agreement was signed with DCN of France for assistance by its design group,...
1971 War: Sinking of the KHUKRI
By: Vice Adm (Retd) GM Hiranandani | Issue: Book Excerpt: Transition to Triumph | Date: 21 Mar , 2021
“The Story of the Pakistan Navy” has recounted the events as seen from the submarine HANGAR which sank the KHUKRI. HANGAR had sailed from Karachi on 22 November for a patrol off the Saurashtra...
Indian Navy: Changes in Regulations Regarding Moustaches and Beards
By: Vice Adm (Retd) GM Hiranandani | Issue: Book Excerpt: Transition to Triumph | Date: 27 Nov , 2020
The Navy’s Regulations on the subject of moustaches and beards had adopted, verbatim, the regulations of the British Navy. These required that a naval officer or sailor:- had either to have...
1971 War: The First Missile Attack on Karachi
By: Vice Adm (Retd) GM Hiranandani | Issue: Book Excerpt: Transition to Triumph | Date: 09 Sep , 2020
Events before the Attack Vice Admiral (later Admiral) Kohli, was the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command (FOCINCWEST). In his book “We Dared”, he states: “After...
External Naval presence in Indian Ocean
By: Vice Adm (Retd) GM Hiranandani | Issue: Book Excerpt: Transition to Guardianship: The Indian Navy 1991-2000 | Date: 27 May , 2018
Sea Lines of Communications (SLOCs) in the Indian Ocean, came into prominence in the 90s when forces of globalisation sparked a process of huge economic growth that resulted in increased...
Warship Production: Life Cycle Management
By: Vice Adm (Retd) GM Hiranandani | Issue: Vol 22.1 Jan - Mar 2007 | Date: 08 Jan , 2018
In recent years, two developments have overlapped. India has become a cost-effective manufacturing location at a time when India’s Army, Navy and Air Force are poised to commence their...
Navy’s Marine Commandos
By: Vice Adm (Retd) GM Hiranandani | Issue: Book Excerpt: Transition to Guardianship: The Indian Navy 1991-2000 | Date: 25 Dec , 2017
The need for Marine Commando (MARCOS) was first accepted in 1985 for the defence of offshore assets in Bombay High against clandestine attacks. The commandos’ task was to evict terrorists who...
1971 War: The Sinking of the Ghazi
By: Vice Adm (Retd) GM Hiranandani | Issue: Book Excerpt: Transition to Triumph | Date: 18 Feb , 2017
The Pakistan Navy’s Deployment of Ghazi in the 1971 Indo Pakistan War In his book, “Pakistan’s Crisis in Leadership”, written in 1972 soon after the war, Maj General Fazal Muqeem Khan...
Indian Navy: Anti Missile Defence Systems
By: Vice Adm (Retd) GM Hiranandani | Issue: Book Excerpt: Transition to Guardianship: The Indian Navy 1991-2000 | Date: 08 Apr , 2015
In the 1971 Indo–Pakistan War, small 200 ton missile boats acquired from Russia attacked ships patrolling outside Karachi harbour. The radar homing heads of these liquid fuelled missiles...
The Global Aircraft Carrier Perspective
By: Vice Adm (Retd) GM Hiranandani | Issue: Vol 21.4 Oct-Dec 2006 | Date: 30 May , 2012
Navies have Aircraft Carriers to provide instantly available air power to fleets at sea. The number of aircraft carriers that a Navy requires derives from how many are needed during war to...
Indian Coast Guard
By: Vice Adm (Retd) GM Hiranandani | Issue: Book Excerpt: Indian Armed Forces | Date: 15 May , 2012
The deliberations, in the 1970s, of the United Nations Conferences on the Law of the Sea led to the establishment of India’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). On 25 August 1976, India passed the...
Third Naval Base at Karwar
By: Vice Adm (Retd) GM Hiranandani | Issue: Book Excerpt: Transition to Guardianship: The Indian Navy 1991-2000 | Date: 26 Mar , 2012
During the 1970s, the conceptual requirement for a ‘Third Naval Base’ on the West Coast, in addition to Bombay and Cochin, crystallised. The requirements were: Large waterfront with...
Navies in the Indian Ocean
By: Vice Adm (Retd) GM Hiranandani | Issue: Book Excerpt: Transition to Guardianship: The Indian Navy 1991-2000 | Date: 17 Feb , 2012
To understand the role of the Navy in the 90s it may be important to review the circumstances in which the Navy was required to operate in that time “” especially with regard to the...
Combat capability of the Naval Air Arm
By: Vice Adm (Retd) GM Hiranandani | Issue: Book Excerpt: Transition to Guardianship: The Indian Navy 1991-2000 | Date: 14 Feb , 2012
In the four decades since independence, the nation’s naval air arm had grown substantially to emerge as a prominent fighting force. By 1991, the combat capability of the Air Arm had leapfrogged...
Reconciling Manpower Costs
By: Vice Adm (Retd) GM Hiranandani | Issue: Vol 22.3 Jul-Sep 2007 | Date: 05 Sep , 2011
Concern about the rising cost of Armed Forces manpower has been a topic of debate ever since the 5th Pay Commission recommendations were implemented in the 1990s. Now that the 6th Pay Commission...
The Emerging Role of the Indian Navy in the New World Order - II
By: Vice Adm (Retd) GM Hiranandani | Issue: Book Excerpt: Transition to Guardianship: The Indian Navy 1991-2000 | Date: 12 Apr , 2011
Operation Tasha: The Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was inducted in Sri Lanka in July 1987, as per the Indo–Sri Lanka Accord, to end the ethnic struggle that claimed many lives and ruined...
The Emerging Role of the Indian Navy in the New World Order - I
By: Vice Adm (Retd) GM Hiranandani | Issue: Book Excerpt: Transition to Guardianship: The Indian Navy 1991-2000 | Date: 11 Apr , 2011
India’s role in the world order has been gradually expanding. From its fledging origins in the early-50s, to the exalted perch at which it finds itself now, there has been a virtual inversion...
Low Intensity Conflict Revisited
By: Vice Adm (Retd) GM Hiranandani | Issue: Vol 22.3 Jul-Sep 2007 | Date: 10 Dec , 2010
Insurgencies have existed for centuries. In recent decades however, the easy availability of machineguns, rocket-propelled grenades, RDX explosive with hi-tech remote-triggering devices have made...
India's Defence Economics
By: Vice Adm (Retd) GM Hiranandani | Issue: Vol 21.4 Oct-Dec 2006 | Date: 09 Nov , 2010
Indian media often highlights the criticism voiced against the Ministry of Defence and its Departments of Research & Development, Defence Production and Defence Finance regarding the cost and...