In the first week of May, as India and Pakistan fired rockets and missiles at each other from land and air for four days straight, a 40,000-tonne Indian aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, led a flotilla from India’s west coast towards Pakistan.
While the armies and the air forces exchanged a near-continuous volley of fire, the Indian Navy patiently waited for orders from New Delhi — to either block Pakistan-bound merchant ships and cut off an economic lifeline, or to fire salvos on the Pakistani mainland, according to three Indian navy officers. The orders never came.
But tellingly, the officers add, Pakistan did not bring out any of its warships or submarines to engage in the open seas, bar one sortie of a reconnaissance aircraft.
您已阅读5%（737字），剩余95%（14292字）包含更多重要信息，订阅以继续探索完整内容，并享受更多专属服务。