The Indian Navy will have to soldier on for the foreseeable future with a glaring capability gap in detecting and countering naval mines, even as Chinese submarines regularly patrol the waters of the Indian Ocean and could potentially deploy said weapons that would prove to be a danger for the country's sea warriors.

The government has scrapped the Rs 320-billion (Rs 32,000-crore) project to build 12 advanced minesweepers at the Goa Shipyard in collaboration with South Korea, at once striking a blow to both the Navy and its own 'Make in India' plans in the defence ...