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Greater Trust on ...

But the general status of platforms and equipment remains similar in maintaining a
high dependency on OEM due to lack in indigenous production ability.
Factors Affecting the Decision-Making Process in Smaller Navies

There are different factors which affect the decision-making process of
smaller navies in modern day warfare. Amongst those only the significant ones are
mentioned below.

Factors Relating to Assigned Tasks
The primary role of a navy is to ensure territorial integrity and maritime
security in the territorial sea and Exclusive Economic Zone of its country. In
addition, the navy has to be capable of undertaking constabulary and benign tasks
to render safer seas for national maritime economic activities including protection
of national maritime resources. The constabulary role of naval forces has come into
sharp focus as a result of increased disputes regarding maritime boundaries
between the neighboring littorals based on the United Nations Conventions of the
Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). For many navies, unless having a bigger coast guard,
these constabulary roles are being performed by their respective navy. However,
the smaller navies have to provide a considerable number of platforms out of their
limited number of available platforms for the role of coast guard. The ensuing
resource constraint of the smaller navy makes execution of her roles difficult.
Factors Relating to Equipment Capability

First, high dependency on OEM for spares threatens the availability of the
vital weapons, sensors and equipments in time of actual need. Second, smaller
navies have either limited or no data-linking facility on board their platforms.
Therefore, smaller navies distinctly suffer from sharing real-time data, critical in
shaping the decision-making. Third, a difficulty in interfacing and interoperability
with joint service resources procured from heterogeneous origin is a critical factor.
It hinders the competitive decision-making cycle of target identification and
coordinated attack on enemy objectives. Fourth, limited or absence of Over the
Horizon Targeting (OTHT) capability delays the decision making in releasing one’s
own weapons and instead offers a ‘window of attack opportunity’ to a potential
adversary. Thereby, chances of losing the pursuit of competitive decision-making
cycle to the enemy remain always very high.

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