He flew into the Arabian Sea from Goa yesterday and spent an entire day on Viraat, the only aircraft carrier in the Navy, and witnessed the Navy's defence preparedness. The need for an air defence ship is being felt acutely, with Viraat going in for major refurbishing in April. The aircraft carrier, which has a capacity to hold and launch 20 fighter jets at sea, will be out of operation for almost two years, leaving the Arabian Sea ``vulnerable'', as Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sushil Kumar puts it.

The Navy put up an impressive display of its martial and maritime prowess before Vajpayee on the occasion of The Prime Minister's day at Sea. Vajpayee even spent the night on board in the Admiral's cabin in this flagship of the Navy. And despite the rolling and pitching,naval officers said ``he slept well''.

There was excitement on board Viraat and the 20 other ships participating in the sea exercise before Vajpayee's arrival. From the pilots ferrying him from the Naval Air Base, Dabolim (Goa), to the chef who prepared Vajpayee's favourite gulab jamuns, all seemed waiting in anticipation.

The Sea Harriers or the sea-launched jet fighters took off from the flight deck one after the other as soon as Vajpayee settled down to witness the exercise. In the middle of the Arabian Sea, the aircraft gave a glimpse of their attack and defence tasks. Then the helicopters took off from various ships, frigates and destroyers showing how they worked at sea-hunting for submarines before sinking them, search and rescue operations and so on.

The elite Marine Commandoes displayed their skills next, para-jumping into the sea from an AN-32 aircraft. They were ``recovered'' by small boats and taken to different ships.

Suddenly on the horizon appeared a dark and ominouslooking sea monster close on the starboard side. That was Sindhu Vijay, the submarine which displayed her various periscopes and radar masts followed by a full surfacing procedure.

The exercise continued throughout the day and at sundown, the ships fired their surface-to-surface missiles illuminating the night sky. The ships fired on targets in air, on the surface and below the surface of the sea with deadly precision.

Apart from Viraat, a tanker Shakti that sustains the ship, missile frigates, missile destroyers, Leander class ships, off-shore patrolling vessel (OPVs), a missile corvette, a submarine, missile boats and a fast track craft participated in the day-long-exercise.

Addressing sailors after the exercise, Vajpayee said his Government was committed to making the Navy powerful and was actively considering modernisation on various fronts. He said that after watching the display, he could go off to sleep peacefully, knowing that the seas were safe.

Touching on core issuesaffecting the sailors, Vajpayee during tea with them told them that he knew of the acute housing problems they faced and was trying to solve them. He said he was aware that the service personnel were eagerly waiting for the anomalies committee report on pay disparity and assured them that the report would be out soon.

And not just by day, the Navy is out to protect naval boundaries even by night. The fighter jets took off the aircraft carrier in pitch dark and carried along with Kamov and Seaking helicopters for airborne surveillance, displaying the precise man-machine balance required at sea. Defence Minister George Fernandes, Naval Chief Admiral Kumar and Flag-Officer-Commanding-in-chief, Western Naval Command Vice Admiral Madhvendra Singh attended the exercise.