What is common between the purchases of 44,500 ton aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, the construction of an indigenous 32,000 ton Air Defence Ship, the order for 3 Modified Kiev class Frigates, the indigenous construction of new generation stealth frigates under Project 17, issuing of Request For Proposal for seven more new generation stealth frigates (Project 17A), the commencement of the construction 6 Scorpene Submarines, the construction of three new stealth destroyers (Project 15A), the purchase of 17,000 ton amphibious vessel USS Trenton from the US and the construction of the latest naval base of Indian Navy known as INS Kadamba at Karwar in Karnataka? Well, all these are the harbingers of the new age ambition of the Indian Navy to acquire strategic depth. Flaunting the 7th largest navy in the world tag for quite sometime, it has been severely hamstrung by the absence of any exclusive naval port in her arsenal. The INS Kadamba, an $8 billion plus project along with a similar one coming up near Vishakhapatnam in East coast would change the very paradigm of the Indian Navy’s maneuvering capability and would be the home for most of the recent and future acquisitions. And with the commissioning of the first Phase in 2005 and the work on the second phase going on full steam (expected to be finished by 2010) the navy is gradually taking on the mantle of securing India’s geo-strategic interests. As India aspires to be a force to reckon with, it would necessarily have to have a very agile, lean, mean, lethal and formidable naval force with precisioned attack and stealth capability. For once India seems to be heading in the right direction and surprisingly…ahead of time.