But, first, a brief background. In the 1965 war, the Indian Navy was assigned a defensive role and directed not to operate north of Porbandar. This was to result, among other things, in a furtive raid on Dwarka by the Pakistan Navy. While it was completely inconsequential and resulted in no damage, it led to some uninformed criticism of the Indian Navy. It also caused a lot of disquiet in the rank and file about being deprived of action and Navy’s inherent flexibility not being utilised. The Navy’s senior officers were determined that should another opportunity arise, the Service must not be ‘found wanting’ and this presented itself six years later. In the intervening period, the Navy’s leadership had also rapidly increased its manpower and augmented its hardware by acquiring submarines, Petya class corvettes and the Osa class missile boats, all of which played an important role in the war.