Today brings back fond memories of the most glorious chapter of our Navy's history. September 1965 was a near-miracle.

The tiny Pakistan fleet consisted of just one old submarine, an ageing cruiser and half a dozen pre World War vintage destroyers. Not much of a battle fleet. But what it lacked in material it more than made up for in its incredible manpower. A highly professional and motivated body of men was led by the towering figure of its larger-than-life and daring commander, Admiral AR Khan. Nothing is more lethal in war than the combination of a commander with a mission, leading a highly charged body of competent men. When war broke out in 1965 the Navy was lucky to have had that combination.

In war a Navy has clear cut functions. It must keep its ports open. It must keep its trade flowing. Otherwise a nation can be strangulated by a blockade and brought to its knees, regardless of any dramatic successes of its armies and air forces. For a nation like Pakistan, which is not self sufficient in oil and depends heavily on imports, war would be lost if its ports are not kept open, irrespective of how powerful its army and its air forces, or how vast its nuclear arsenal. A weak Navy is the nation's Achilles heel. Fortunately in 1965 that was not so.

The Navy kept the nation's sea lanes open. Not for a day did the Indian Navy interrupt our trade. It could not harass our merchant shipping. Nor close our ports. Our Army and Air Force fought their battles unhindered by the lack of fuel, and won laurels in brilliantly defending the country. Without unrestricted flow of fuel, tanks and trucks and guns and aircraft would all have come to a halt, permitting the enemy an easy walk-over.

Defending its own coast and shipping is not the only role of a Navy. It also needs to conduct offensive operations and carry the battle to the enemy. It can interdict the enemy's shipping and shut its ports. It can also hit the enemy where it hurts the most, through landing on its coast and through naval bombardment. With over 3,000 miles of coastline stretching from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal and hundreds of ports, a naval blockade of India would require a massive force. The Pakistan Navy has never been assigned this function. The Armed Forces of Pakistan also do not have a mandate to land on the Indian coast from seaward and are consequently not equipped or trained to do so.

In spite of these impediments Admiral AR Khan took a bold decision. He went on the offensive. With his tiny fleet he launched an assault `on the Indian mainland. Steaming at high speed under cover of darkness the fleet hit the port city of Dwarka with hundreds of high explosive shells, terrorizing the local population. Naval bombardment is a spectacular sight, intense, fiery, loud and devastating. Although it did no tangible damage –- there are no prize targets in the area -- it had a hugely dramatic effect on the Indian nation. Its leadership was stunned, its population aghast at the nation's maritime impotence. The Pakistani media went wild, pouring fuel on the fire by gleefully claiming a symbolic victory in destroying Dwarka's historic temple of Somnath, destroyed centuries earlier by Mehmood Ghaznavi. That, of course was a fictitious claim. The Navy can never target a temple. Islam strictly forbids attacking holy places of all religions.

Besides the assault on Dwarka, the Navy had also launched its one old submarine, the "GHAZI", to single-handedly attack the Indian fleet and any merchant shipping it could find in the Indian Ocean. Having been humiliated by the Dwarka bombardment and unable to locate the GHAZI, the mightly Indian fleet meekly vacated the Arabian Sea and withdrew to safer waters hundreds of miles away to the South. The North Indian Ocean – from the Gulf of Aden to the Gulf of Kutch, encompassing the coastal waters of Oman, Yemen, Iran and Pakistan as well as the mouth of the Persian Gulf-- was totally under the control of the Pakistan Navy, which freely roamed the seas and provided safe passage to merchant ships, none of which were touched by the Indian Navy. It was an incredible victory against overwhelming odds. Sailors walked tall, proudly basking in the glory of their success. But not for long. Pride has its fall and deep humiliation was not long in coming.

While the Pakistanis gloated the Indians quickly learnt the lessons of their defeat and began revamping their fleet. Within six years the tables had turned. War broke out again on 3rd December 1971. On the night of 4th December Pakistan lost the war. GHAZI was sunk., MUHAFIZ was sunk. KHAIBAR was sunk. Hundreds were dead. The Pakistani fleet was on the run, with nowhere to hide. The Indian Navy ruled the seas, completely blockading Pakistan. No supplies or fuel could ever come in, severely limiting the already over stretched resources of Pakistan's Air Force and Army. On 8 th December the Pakistan Navy surrendered the seas and meekly entered harbour in total defeat.

As though the surrender was not bad enough further indignity was to follow. Ships were ordered to "de-ammunition", i.e. remove all heavy ammunition and send it to depots ashore so that there was no risk of it exploding in harboar in case a ship was hit by an enemy bomb. Grown men, battle hardened veterans of the brilliant victory of 1965, openly wept as they carried ammunition off their ships in the middle of a war, failing to understand what had gone so hopelessly wrong.

The defeat of 1971 rekindled the fire in the bellies of sailors. The discredited leadership of the war was replaced by a fiery young professional team led by the charismatic Admiral H H Ahmad. They began the massive task of rebuilding a Navy which could secure its frontiers, as in 1965. It has been a long haul. Slowly but surely the Navy has removed the weaknesses of 1971. Progress has been consistent, except for a brief but serious hiccup from the financial shenanigans and criminal activities of the disgraced Mansoor-ul-Haq.

The Navy of today is a lethal force, one of only a handful working in four dimensions. The pride of the fleet is its submarine force, including the latest vessels with Air Independent Propulsion which gives them a phenomenal range without surfacing. These highly advanced vessels, arguably the world's finest non-nuclear submarines, are now being built in Pakistan.

New surface ships are under construction in China while the ten P-3 aircraft joining the fleet will make it a truly formidable force. Each aircraft can stay aloft for 16 hours and can detect and destroy enemy surface ships and submarines anywhere in the Indian Ocean, all the way down to Sri Lanka and across to the African coast. The most lethal weapon being inducted is the new Harpoon missile, a mini cruise missile which can destroy targets at sea and on land from far away.

Besides its air, surface and sub-surface components, the Navy has also entered the fourth dimension in the form of its Commando and Marine battalions. And the four components are backed by the latest advances in technology. The Navy of today is well-equipped, professionally manned and competently led, able to repeat the glorious performance of 1965, when it effectively ruled the waves and secured the nations maritime interests against overwhelming odds.