Funding for desi aircraft carrier tops CCS agenda - The Times of India
NEW DELHI: India's mission to build its own aircraft carrier has virtually come to a grinding halt, with the defence establishment awaiting allocation of fresh funds to finish the 40,000-tonne warship's construction at Cochin Shipyard.
The approval for the around Rs 19,000 crore Phase-II and III construction of the long-delayed indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC), to be christened INS Vikrant, figures among the top agenda items for the new Modi government's Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), say sources.
The UPA regime's CCS, in fact, was to take up the case earlier this year, after clearance from the defence and finance ministries, but the final nod failed to materialize. "So, fresh approvals from MoD and MoF are being obtained to take it to the CCS again," said a source.
The fund allocation, when it happens, will not come a day too soon. With around 75% of IAC's basic structure now erected, the Navy hopes to get the carrier by 2018-2019 to fulfill its long-standing aim of operating two full-fledged carrier-battle groups (CBGs).
While India does have two carriers now, 44,570-tonne INS Vikramaditya and 28,000-tonne INS Viraat, the latter is 55 years old. Moreover, it's left with just 11 Sea Harrier jump-jets to operate from its deck.
INS Vikramaditya, or Admiral Gorshkov acquired from Russia after a $2.33 billion refit, was recently declared "fully-operational" by Navy chief Admiral Robin Dhowan. The 45 MiG-29K naval fighters, being procured from Russia for over $2 billion, will operate both from INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant.
While it is certainly not easy to construct aircraft carriers, with only the US, Russia, UK and France having built such large warships till now, the IAC has had a tortuous past. After several years of discussions, the government in January 2003 finally sanctioned the design and construction of the IAC, which will take its name from the first carrier acquired from the UK in 1961 and later decommissioned in 1997.
Of the estimated construction cost of Rs 20,000 crore, around Rs 3,500 crore have been spent so far to complete the IAC's hull and deck, signifying the underwater work and machinery fitting in the warship is over. Now, the superstructure, the upper decks, the cabling, sensors and weapons have to be integrated.
Prowling on the high seas as mobile airbases, aircraft carriers are considered the final word in projecting hard combat power. The US, for instance, has 11 nuclear-powered Nimitz-class "super-carriers'', each over 94,000 tonnes and capable of carrying 80-90 fighters. China, too, is now looking at nuclear-powered carriers after inducting its first conventional carrier, the 65,000-tonne Liaoning, in September 2012.
NEW DELHI: India's mission to build its own aircraft carrier has virtually come to a grinding halt, with the defence establishment awaiting allocation of fresh funds to finish the 40,000-tonne warship's construction at Cochin Shipyard.
The approval for the around Rs 19,000 crore Phase-II and III construction of the long-delayed indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC), to be christened INS Vikrant, figures among the top agenda items for the new Modi government's Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), say sources.
The UPA regime's CCS, in fact, was to take up the case earlier this year, after clearance from the defence and finance ministries, but the final nod failed to materialize. "So, fresh approvals from MoD and MoF are being obtained to take it to the CCS again," said a source.
The fund allocation, when it happens, will not come a day too soon. With around 75% of IAC's basic structure now erected, the Navy hopes to get the carrier by 2018-2019 to fulfill its long-standing aim of operating two full-fledged carrier-battle groups (CBGs).
While India does have two carriers now, 44,570-tonne INS Vikramaditya and 28,000-tonne INS Viraat, the latter is 55 years old. Moreover, it's left with just 11 Sea Harrier jump-jets to operate from its deck.
INS Vikramaditya, or Admiral Gorshkov acquired from Russia after a $2.33 billion refit, was recently declared "fully-operational" by Navy chief Admiral Robin Dhowan. The 45 MiG-29K naval fighters, being procured from Russia for over $2 billion, will operate both from INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant.
While it is certainly not easy to construct aircraft carriers, with only the US, Russia, UK and France having built such large warships till now, the IAC has had a tortuous past. After several years of discussions, the government in January 2003 finally sanctioned the design and construction of the IAC, which will take its name from the first carrier acquired from the UK in 1961 and later decommissioned in 1997.
Of the estimated construction cost of Rs 20,000 crore, around Rs 3,500 crore have been spent so far to complete the IAC's hull and deck, signifying the underwater work and machinery fitting in the warship is over. Now, the superstructure, the upper decks, the cabling, sensors and weapons have to be integrated.
Prowling on the high seas as mobile airbases, aircraft carriers are considered the final word in projecting hard combat power. The US, for instance, has 11 nuclear-powered Nimitz-class "super-carriers'', each over 94,000 tonnes and capable of carrying 80-90 fighters. China, too, is now looking at nuclear-powered carriers after inducting its first conventional carrier, the 65,000-tonne Liaoning, in September 2012.
