INS Vikrant Aircraft Carrier (IAC)

Kchontha

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India need another ac other than vicky and iac that will be the reserve one when the other two are on prowl on the arabian sea and bay of bengal. It should be able to house different types of fighters other than mig 29k, even awacs. If u do it after 10 or 15 years it would be very late.
 

FactsPlease

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Making an slightly bigger version of the Vikrant is not an bad idea. Lots of things are in its favour. Would give the Cochin Shipyard an opportunity to consolidate on the skills already acquired while building Vikrant 1.Seems the lowest cost option.
Probably some systems and subsystems can be changed in light of past experience. There were rumours that Russia delayed the delivery of the aviation complex considerably. Whether true or not is a question mark. Similarly Fincantieri of Italy delayed their execution of the work assigned to them. Again unverified.

An attempt must be made to increase the proportion of indigenous systems and components if they can meet the stringent quality standards and adhere to time and cost estimates.

There will be a lot of technological choices to be made . But the cost factor, avoiding time delays and feasibility of the technology selected should guide the decision making.

One very important modification should be that the aircraft lifts should be able to house the future TEDBF, Rafale-M and the F18 Super Hornet.
Whether we will actually import these planes is another matter, but at least our options for the naval carrier aircraft will increase. The Mig 29K does not seem to have impressed the Navy and may not be actively considered.

An ability to launch drones is an necessity. It would be great if we can have an indigenous SRSAM and a naval variant of the Akash-NG. But if it takes too long to develop the Barak 8 is there to fulfil the role.

I believe that the cost of the Vikrant 2 will be reasonable. The cost of the air arm is a different matter and depends on the aircraft chosen.

Now the biggest problem is to find the money for the Vikrant 2.The emphasis on the submarine arm by the Government is fully justified. The SSN's will be needed pretty fast. Along with the SSBN's. Even the conventional AIP equipped submarines have an important role to play in the shallow waters along our coast line. For Pakistan our conventional submarines should be enough. The SSN's will be needed for China.

Everything depends on whether we can scale up our economic growth rate in order to generate adequate funds for defence.
Like your point but how much money we can expect to spend on CV?
We are hearing 50,000 more ground troops been deployed to Ladakh. I won't blame GoI want to show a firm position, as long as it got a real strategy. In the mean time we will see many, many more assets be acquired for IAF, soon. And carrier is only number 3 or 4 priority in Navy - as fully agreed to your point: there are SSN, SSBN, and even the un-filled "hole" for air wing on Vikrant.
 

Tridev123

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Like your point but how much money we can expect to spend on CV?
We are hearing 50,000 more ground troops been deployed to Ladakh. I won't blame GoI want to show a firm position, as long as it got a real strategy. In the mean time we will see many, many more assets be acquired for IAF, soon. And carrier is only number 3 or 4 priority in Navy - as fully agreed to your point: there are SSN, SSBN, and even the un-filled "hole" for air wing on Vikrant.
Yes, finding the money is the dilemma.
There are numerous demands on the defence budget and deciding priorities is a serious job. As far as the Navy goes
1.The submarine arm will receive the topmost priority if we consider our strategic nuclear weapons programme. I am taking about SSBN's and SSN's. The third and the most survivable leg of our strategic deterrent force needs to be operationalised as early as possible. This will send a message to the Chinese that they cannot destroy our nuclear weapons in a surprise first strike.
2.Even the conventional submarines whether with AIP or not will be needed to deter Chinese submarines from coming too close to our shores. Pakistan of course is the obvious enemy. There were reports that an Kilo class Indian Navy sub tailed an Pak Navy Agosta class sub without being detected and managed to collect crucial information on the acoustic signature of their sub. The new Scorpene is a generation ahead of the Kilo(Naval sources will be in a better position to make an judgment). So the utility of conventional subs is not in doubt. I believe that gradually all Indian conventional submarines will have AIP. Only very old subs may miss it.

Aircraft Carriers have not outlived their utility but due to their high cost they are not easy to fund. Many believe that instead of building an heavy or super heavy carrier (65000 to 100,000 tonnes displacement) and spending billions of dollars on it a couple of medium sized carriers of around 50,000 tonnes displacement will be a better strategy. Hypothetically speaking if we assume that an anti ship ballistic missile is able to down the super carrier our loss will be greater. On the other hand hand if out of two medium sized carriers one goes down. the other surviving carrier can compensate to an extent. We would be spreading the risk. There are a lot of assumptions being made. The US is a super power with enormous resources and can spend a lot of money on super carriers. We need not follow the same strategy.

In the end it all depends on what our economy can support. If we manage to grow above 10% for at least a decade, then we can also dream big. But the reputation of of our PSU shipyards is not good. Either they totally transform themselves or the private sector should step in in a big way to increase the productivity. How can we think of competing with the Chinese in shipbuilding if we don't increase the efficiency of our shipyards. There has been some progress in areas like modular shipbuilding and installing high capacity Goliath Cranes etc, but clearly not enough. An important asset like the Pipavav Ship Building Yard with the second or third longest Dry Dock in the world is lying idle. Is it not a waste of national resources. If Reliance cannot run it, let L&T or MDL take it over. We will have an alternative to Cochin Shipyard for building aircraft carriers.
 

Sarjen

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Anyway I still know, which jets we're going to use on this ?? not Migs right????/
 

FactsPlease

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No doubt another big step considering current pandemic situation.

I'm more conservative about induction possibility at 2022, but we shall see.

Which makes the air wing issue more urgent now. Tip point for critical decision among available options (models), I'm afraid. Or we accept the under-utilized deck (for fixed wings).
 

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