Underwater Domain Awareness (UDA)

• Vaid's ICS, Lucknow
• 06, Dec 2021

Why in News?

Chief of the Naval Staff has highlighted that for India, with regard to naval operations, underwater domain awareness (UDA) was one of the most critical areas.

Underwater domain awareness:

• Underwater domain awareness (UDA) is the aspect of maritime domain awareness.
• It focusses on the underwater sector, including, from a security perspective, sea lines of communication (SLOC), coastal waters and varied maritime assets with reference to hostile intent and the proliferation of submarine and mine capabilities intended to limit access to the seas and littoral waters.
• It is a concept that addresses the aspect of a nation’s ability to monitor all the developments in the underwater region and possibly prevent events. 

Details:

• To exploit the potential of unmanned technologies and platforms, the Navy has approved an unmanned road map.
• The economic activities driven by the river, like inland water transport, fishing, underwater resource exploration and exploitation, etc., can be efficiently managed with effective UDA. 
• The security apparatus responsible for providing a secure atmosphere that can minimise subversive activities both by external and internal elements can be enhanced with UDA.
• Effective disaster management is possible with enhanced UDA. With better awareness, the loss of life and property can be minimised.
• Concern:

The discovery of ‘Chinese-origin’ autonomous underwater gliders in the Indonesian waters indicate the extent to which underwater technologies are being harnessed for military advantage by China.

Facts for Prelims:

Kisan Sarathi:

• Digital Platform Kisan Sarathi launched to facilitate farmers to get ‘right information at right time’ in their desired language.
• Farmers can avail personalised advisories on agriculture and allied areas directly from scientists through the digital platform.