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PEOPLES LIBERATION ARMY NAVY (PLAN) SUBSURFACE SEA DENIAL, INDIA'S ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, AND THE COUNTER STRATEGY TO 2047

Indian Naval Despatch: Volume 6. No. 3 | by Sudhir Pillai

PEOPLES LIBERATION ARMY NAVY (PLAN) SUBSURFACE SEA DENIAL, INDIA'S ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, AND THE COUNTER STRATEGY TO 2047
Published Date: August 2026 | 36 min read | 6 Views
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Abstract: The debate on subsurface threats to India is often framed around the wrong question. The question is not whether the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) can threaten Indian warships it already can, and that capacity will grow. The consequential question is whether it can threaten the merchant shipping, energy tankers, and commercial traffic on which Indian economic well-being depends across critical sea line…

aign in the Indian Ocean; it is a demonstration of coercive logic. A relatively modest subsurface and mine threat, backed by visible missile and drone activity, can impose economic, diplomatic and insurance costs far beyond its order of battle. Scaled to PLAN capacity and applied to the Nine-Degree Channel or the Bay o

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