News Regarding Setting Up of Secured Communication Link between Indian Navy and U S Navy
There has been a unverified news that India and the US have set up the first ever secure communication link between their naval headquarters.
All this is fine as long as it is between the two Navies on basis of equality. However some say that it is between the HQ Indian Navy here and the US Central as well as Pacific Naval Commands.
This is highly objectionable. Under the Indo-US COMCASA pact reached last year, communication set up should have been between Western Naval Command of India and Central Naval Component Command of US Central Command and similarly between the Indian Eastern Naval Command and Naval Component Command of US Pacific Command..
The US has also activated the Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module GPS system in P8I aircraft as a result of the implementation of the COMCASA (Communications, Compatibility & Security Agreement).
The two upgrades will allow both sides to share real-time operational intelligence. In the case of P8I the systems were purchased but not activated because the US said it could not part with the encryption codes until the enabling COMCASA pact is signed.
The establishment of a secure active link between the two navies is being seen as a significant step forward as India will gain access to latest US naval intelligence besides conducting joint operations in the future.
The link was set up, sources said, by a US team which visited India recently. The Comcasa pact will in due course enable both sides to operate on the same communication systems, thus helping build an “interoperable” environment for militaries.
Without this pact, the US could not part with highly coded communication gear with the military platforms they sell to India. As a result, India had to depend on less secure systems on, otherwise, high-end platforms like P8I maritime surveillance aircraft.
While negotiating the pact, India also obtained a reliability assurance from the US that it will ensure availability of secured communication equipment covered by the pact at all time as well as keep them operational.
India was also assured that the US will not share data from Indian platforms with another country, nor access this data without prior permission. Also, sources said, the choice to upgrade would rest with India and not wholly determined by the US.
We also hope that the Indian Navy has built firewalls between the American origin equipment and Russian origin equipment, so that no data pertaining to Russian equipment is snooped into by the Americans.
Also All Indian data is safe and does not fall into American hands. Also that we have alternate arrangements to switch over to different mode of Communication, if American system fails technically or is made to fail intentionally.
