When the Salvor, a U.S. Navy rescue and salvage ship, pulled into a port in India’s southeast this summer, the job at hand was patching up the aging vessel.
But there was a bigger mission, too: opening another door for a U.S. military trying to stretch out across the Indo-Pacific and counter Chinese power.
The Navy ship was the third in a year to arrive at Kattupalli, an industrial hamlet north of Chennai with a state-of-the-art shipyard.
“We’re well equipped to do this,” said Arun Ramchandani, the head of the defense unit of L&T, the Mumbai-based conglomerate that built the shipyard.
In the vast Indo-Pacific, such connections could prove important for deterring China and, in the event of a conflict, sustaining a U.S. mobilization.
Persons:
”, Arun Ramchandani
Organizations:
U.S . Navy, Navy, Pentagon
Locations:
U.S, India’s, Kattupalli, Chennai, Mumbai, United States, China