The right to navigate the seas for any nation must prevail regardless of whether we like China's face or not.The issues between China and other Asian states relate to sovereignty and territorial disputes and not transiting the SLOCs.If we abandon this universally accepted law,then the US will make merry blockading any state whose face it does not like and we will be gripped with global conflicts.Right now,Asia is the world's economic generator and sabotaging its return to pre-eminence which it had 500 years ago before the arrival of European navies in our waters ,will have to be met with an irresistible force,jointly rather than separately.Either Asia swims together or hangs separately.This does require a turnaround in the attitude of the PRC.What would it prefer,to quote JFK about choosing LBJ as his running mate,"having India in the tent pissing out or outside pissing in?" As mentioned above in another post,unless we possess ICBMs ,the threat of armtwisting will increase.This what China has supposedly told the US about its gunboat diplomacy off the Chinese coast,"we are willing to take millions of casualties in a nuclear exchange,but can you afford to lose even a few cities?" Did not China enforce its rights by forcing down a US P-3 Orion LRMP that was snooping around Hainan island not to long ago? What did the USN do? It tucked its tail between its legs.
The IN must start building up capability to ward off any superpower naval action against it in the IOR primarily mainly because of the issue debated here.As said before,we must use the landmass of India as an unsinkable carrier and equip he IN with LR tactical strike bombers like the TU-22 Backfire for the IN (also serving as strategic bombers in a N-crisis) and SU-34s for the IAF,which it will also find useful in the Himalayan regions.Along with the increased maritime strike aircraft ,a fleet of nuclear boats SSGNs is an absolute.These will give us three-dimensional capability to deal with any enemy carrier task force that enters the IOR,even before it transits the choke points.The augmenting of the ASW LRMP capability with P-8s,legacy aircraft,etc.,must steadily continue.Here are some details of Russian upgrades of the IL-38.Interesting to compare it with IN's IL-38SD upgrades.If India behaves like a mouse it will be treated as one.
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htnava ... 20317.aspx
Improved P-3ski Heads North
March 17, 2012: The Russian Navy recently received the first of the upgraded Il-38N maritime reconnaissance aircraft. There have been several upgrades since the Il-38N first entered service eleven years ago. These were major upgrades of an aircraft that had been in service since the 1960s. The latest upgrades enable the aircraft to detect ships within 320 kilometers. There is also a new thermal (heat) sensor, more powerful computers, and increased capability in all sensors.
Existing Il-38Ns can detect surface vessels and aircraft and submarines up to 150 kilometers away. Sensors carried include a synthetic aperture/inverse synthetic aperture radar (for night and fog operations), high-resolution FLIR (forward-looking infrared), LLTV (low light television) camera, ESM (electronic support measures) system, and a MAD (magnetic anomaly detector). The aircraft can carry anti-ship missiles, in addition to torpedoes, bombs, depth charges, and electronic decoys.
The Il-38N is a 63 ton, four engine turboprop aircraft with a crew of ten, endurance of about ten hours, and it can carry nine tons of weapons. The 63 ton American P-3 has very similar characteristics. Russia built 176 Il-38s while the U.S. built over 600 P-3s.
the above.