The Indian navy’s guided missile frigate Tabar literally replayed the climax scene of Sly Stallone’s Rambo movies when it blasted a ship of Somali pirates off the coast of Yemen this week. Living up to its name, the frigate approached the pirate ship stealthily and then launched its marine commandos using the on-board Kamov helicopter to corner the pirates. Despite the threat of pirates to re-enact the USS Cole episode, Tabar used its 100 mm cannon to sink the ship. With this, India declared its presence near the Gulf of Aden, next to one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.

India successfully escorted US cargo ships through the Malacca Straits during the first stages of the war in Afghanistan in 2002. This,

India’s latest power projection, illustrates the belief amongst New Delhi’s military planners that its strategic interests extend from the Gulf of Aden to the Malacca Straits. This was first put on paper post-Pokharan II in the strategic dialogue with the Clinton administration and has now been translated into action by the Manmohan Singh government. The Tabar action appears to have been carefully calibrated; the foreign ministry had earlier shot down a navy proposal to launch a commando mission to rescue the largely Indian crew on board the Stolt Valor, a Japanese merchant ship hijacked by pirates on September 15. South Block apparently did not agree with the navy on intervention; it was a case, after all, of a Japanese ship in Somalia’s territorial waters. However, that same day in October, Defence Minister A.K. Antony cleared the navy’s twin proposals: patrolling international waters from Salalah in Oman to the Gulf of Aden, and urgently exploring the possibilities for joint patrols with other countries.

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