After sinking a pirate ‘mother vessel’ in the Gulf of Aden late on Tuesday night, the Indian Navy is now set to deploy a maritime reconnaissance aircraft for a quicker response to merchant vessels under pirate attack.

A Dornier maritime reconnaissance aircraft may be stationed in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa, where the French have a huge military base. The armed aircraft will add muscle to the operations of the stealth frigate INS Tabar and act as a major force multiplier, providing the Navy with a “better picture” of the world’s most dangerous waters, and the option of using air power to repulse pirate attacks in the entire Gulf of Aden region.

Sources said the matter is high on the agenda of the next round of defence dialogues between India and France that begins on Saturday. Defence Secretary Vijay Singh is leading the Indian delegation at the bilateral talks.

On Tuesday night, the Tabar shot at and sunk a pirate ‘mother vessel’ 285 nautical miles southwest of Salalah in Oman in the Gulf of Aden, the Navy said. This is the first operation of its kind by the Navy since the 1971 war. A week ago, the Tabar had rescued two merchant ships from pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia. The Navy did not suffer any casualty or damage to the warship in Tuesday’s operation.

The Tabar, among the several international naval vessels patrolling the region after a massive spike in pirate attacks over the last few months, was fired upon after it asked a suspicious vessel to stop for identification. The ship matched closely the description of a pirate ‘mother vessel’, towing two speedboats of the kind used by the pirates to attack and board merchant ships in the area.

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