Draft:Operation Triumph/Falcon

Operation Triumph was a planned Indian naval opetation to strike the Karachi Naval harbour during the 1971 India Pakistan war. The mission was cancelled following the loss of INS Kukri, which led the Indian Navy to launch Operation Falcon to hunt down the PNS Hangor.

Operation Triumph/Falcon
Part of Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
Date 10 December 1971 Location Arabian Sea, 14–17 nautical miles (26–31 km; 16–20 mi) south of the Port of Karachi, Pakistan. Result Cancelled following loss of INS Kukri
Belligerents
India	Pakistan
Units involved
Indian Navy	Pakistan Navy
Strength
Vidyut-class missile boats Arnala-class anti-submarine corvettes	Ships deployed off the coast of Karachi PNS Hangor
Mission Cancelled

use refs

https://idsa.in/system/files/jds/11_Srikant%20B.%20Kesnur.pdf

https://dokumen.pub/the-sinking-of-ins-khukri-survivors-stories-9789351940999-9351940993.html

https://www.brecorder.com/news/40213542

https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chandigarh/military-digest-when-indian-navy-struck-terror-over-karachi-7658422/

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/everyday-explainers/navy-day-2025-history-pakistan-war-1971-trident-10401623/

https://usiofindia.org/pdf/Operation%20Trident%20A%20Triumph%20of%20the%20Indian%20Navy%20in%20the%201971%20Indo-Pak%20War.pdf

Background

The Indian Naval command had planned the entire operation on the fact that the Pakistani Navy severely underestimated the strenght of the missile boat squadron. Pakistan had been offred the Osa class missile vessels by the soviet Union in early 1970 but Pakistani doctrine led them to conclude that the ships were not big enought to operate within the Indian Ocean. In sharp contrast, India immediatly adopted the ships ,purchasing a squandron as a part of enlargening the navy.These missile boats were transported to India on heavy lift merchant ships and commissioned in early 1971 in Kolkata, from where, they were towed to Bombay.

The India strike group planned to tow missile vessels by either Arnala or Talwar class Frigates, following as escort vessels, follwing which the missile squadron would sneak into the Shoreline and fire thier missiles in Salvos. On the way to and from, they were to be refuelled by the Indian Fuel tanker Poshak. The first portion of India's Karachi strike force would be called Operation Trident and was scheduled for 5th December. A secondary missile strike called Operation Python would mop up forces that were not damaged during Trident and a final Operation Triumph was deciminate any remaining ships that survived the other two attacks. An cruiser group concentrated around the INS mysore was to patrol the North Arabian sea and engage targets of opprtunity as well as capture any vessels headed towards Pakistan. The group was also to follow the missile boat attack by shelling positions off the Makran coast. However, the broader succes of Operation Python on the night of 9th December led to disquite within the elements of the naval high command for the need to commence further attacks.

Operation Triumph

During the run-up to the expected hostilities, The Indian naval high command serialised a series of plans to attack the Pakistani navy within the port of Karachi. The Western fleet thereby deputed elements of the 22th missile boat squadron, using recently acquired Vidyut class missile boats for the Task. The Indian vessels were to deploy from Bombay harbour towards the Saurastra coast. On December 2nd, in the face of immenent hostileties, Admiral SM Nanda ordered the fleet to be kept ready to sail at a moments notice. The submarine PNS Hangor intercepted transmissions from the warships belonging to the Western Naval Command of the Indian Navy . The submarine was passed over by the large Squadron of the Western fleet of the Indian Navy. She reported that the large cruiser INS Mysore passed directly over the submarine.

The sinking of INS Kukri led the Indian Navy to further redeploy its ships to conduct a search for survivors and attempt to hunt down the offending submarine.

Operation Triumph was then called off by Admiral SM Nanda as he belived that the navy's element of surprise would have been lost earlier than the other two attacks and to redeploy the escorting capital ships to track down Hangor.

Operation Falcon

Following the loss of INS Kuhkri, the Indian Navy mobilised its forces to seek and destroy the Pakistani Submarine Hangor. The operation was launched on the night of 9 December and continued for four days till the night of 13 December, when the Pakistani forces requested for a ceasefire to end the war. During these four days, the Indian Navy utilized all available anti-submarine ships, and it's fleet of Bregut Alize and Sea King ASW helicopters and combed an area extending from the point southwest of Diu right uptil the Karachi coast. Indian search forces also managed to rescue 67 survivors of the submarine attack, when forces under INS Kirpan and INS Katchall returned the following morning under screened escorts.

The crew of Hangor survived 36 salvos of Depth charges and reached Karachi on 18th December, with severly depleted battries. The Crew counted a total of 156 attacks prior to the ceasefire beign established.

Aftermath

While the hunt for Hangor proved futile, the deployment of the Western fleet under operation Falcon achived its secondary objective of imposing a maritime blockade over western Pakistan. No other Pakistani ship deployed to support combat operations, giving the Indian forces absolute sea control over the northern arabian sea.

See Also

• Operation Trident
• Operation Python
• PNS Ghazi