In the last decade, Chinese research vessels in the Indian Ocean have been known to disable their tracking systems to avoid detection.

The problem isn't spotting them, it's knowing what they're doing there.

Existing maritime security mechanisms rely on maritime domain awareness and joint patrols, but these fall short in addressing grey-zone activities, which operate below the threshold of armed conflict and exploit the ambiguities between war and peace.

This brief argues that despite constraints, Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) remains a pragmatic choice for building attribution capabilities within the existing maritime security architecture: https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/attribution-as-the-next-step-in-indian-ocean-maritime-security