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India’s Muddled Carrier Plans

thestringshredder

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At long last, the delivery of INS Vikramaditya, the former Russian Admiral Gorshkov finally appears imminent. Vikramaditya is currently undergoing sea trials with a mixed Russian-Indian crew, and a transfer to Indian service is scheduled for the autumn. The delivery comes several years late, but still perhaps in time for the Indian Navy to use the carrier as a test-bed for INS Vikrant, its first indigenous carrier, scheduled for commissioning in 2018.

However, while the delayed delivery of Vikramaditya has surely proven problematic for the Indian Navy, the program has an altogether broader set of problems. Unlike the PLAN, the Indian Navy has a long history of carrier operations, running from the Majestic class INS Vikrant to the former Centaur class INS Viraat.

But India’s carrier heritage may be less of an asset than it seems. India doesn’t appear interested in achieving greater efficiency in many areas— even in terms of common training and operational procedures— with this path of carrier fleet development.

With the arrival of Vikramaditya, the Indian Navy will be flying new aircraft off of a new carrier of largely unfamiliar design. Although the Indian Navy has experience with both carriers and with Russian vessels, its previous carriers have been of British design, and it has never operated a ship this large.

Furthermore, no Kiev class carrier has been put to sea in an operational sense since the early 1990s, and the modifications to Vikramaditya make her a virtually new vessel in any case. Even after delivery, Vikramaditya will require considerable practice and time to become an effective, operational unit. The MiG-29K is also relatively new to carrier operations, with the first aircraft entering service in 2011.

Operational tempo in Russian service has thus far been slow, meaning that many of the kinks with the carrier-based version of the veteran fighter will have to be worked out in Indian service. If India follows through on plans to build INS Vishal as a CATOBAR carrier, the Navy will again have to learn an entirely new set of procedures, presumably with a new generation of aircraft, in the next decade.

The most interesting points to watch will be Indian collaboration with other carrier-operating navies. The obvious candidate is Russia, but Russia owns only one carrier, which operates at a relatively low temp and may shortly re-enter a prolonged refurbishment period. The only other navy to operate a similar carrier will, ironically, be the PLAN, which is unlikely to share many of its developing operational procedures with the Indian Navy.

The risk of duplication of effort can surely be overstated; some of the tacit knowledge of naval aviation operations will carry over from the STOVL Viraat to the STOBAR Vikramaditya and Vikrant to the CATOBAR Vishal. However, “knowledge efficiency” and modularity do not appear to be strongly valued by the Indian Navy; beginning in 2018, it will operate three carriers of radically different age, design, and capability, and will likely maintain that state of affairs into the medium term (even after Vishal replaces Viraat).

Link - India
 
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IDRW- OF COURSE!!!!

Someone needs to inform these folks about SBTF and tell them that we have pretty much optimized the Fulcrum-K.:hitwall: What remains is deck integration.:) As to our Chinese friends, best of luck dodging Virginias and the largest navy in the world before entering the Indian ocean oh and one of the largest air forces in the world, the USN- Air arm. :tup:
 
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Someone needs to inform these folks about SBTF and tell them that we have pretty much optimized the Fulcrum-K.:hitwall: What remains is deck integration.:) As to our Chinese friends, best of luck dodging Virginias and the largest navy in the world before entering the Indian ocean oh and one of the largest air forces in the world, the USN- Air arm. :tup:

Lol Indian like to brag about USN, why we need to dodge USN before enter Indian Ocean?
 
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Lol Indian like to brag about USN, why we need to dodge USN before enter Indian Ocean?

Becuase of their harebrained idea of a "pivot", not that I like it. Americans breed despair wherever they go but hey you guys poked them first. Thank you for inviting the last navy we needed in the region. Much gratitude. :cuckoo: Now we can all enjoy seawolves and virginias going up and down our sea lanes. :tup:

And no one is bragging about the USN, unless your idea of grand strategy is to deploy your singular carrier AWAY from the very waters where the USN will be deployed against you then the above posts represent the quintessential lemon.
 
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Becuase of their harebrained idea of a "pivot", not that I like it. Americans breed despair wherever they go but hey you guys poked them first. Thank you for inviting the last navy we needed in the region. Much gratitude. :cuckoo: Now we can all enjoy seawolves and virginias going up and down our sea lanes. :tup:

And no one is bragging about the USN, unless your idea of grand strategy is to deploy your singular carrier AWAY from the very waters where the USN will be deployed against you then the above posts represent the quintessential lemon.

You Indians are just too naive, Americans will find an 1000 excuses and 1 pretext to justify their present regardless of what we do, China don't do thing just to please Americans as Japan and other subordinated nations in order to keep American stay away Asia pacific.

As for American's pivot We chinese alway believe crisis = opportunity, if you're afraid and stay away from snake, we will never find antidote, US military present will serve as sychologcal training and prepare our navy officers, commanders and generals on how to deal with them, we will find the answer to Seawolves and Virgil..nias

And if we're ready to navigate our aircraft carrier through Indian Ocean mean China don't need it to be at vincinity as protection. Sure you don't bragg about US but use it as bait to divert the conversation...so the subject will become China vs U.S instead of China vs India

Think of two question:
1. Which navy has most significant presence in Indian ocean?
2. Which country do you face the maximum threat from?


Irrelevant questions, if Indian navy is most significant in Indian ocean mean that China will be scare to Challenge Indian navy in this region? and if China face max. threat mean that we will be confined ourself within our boundary?...only if you know how we play "GO" game.
 
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Russians have dumped Sukhoi's and are going for Mig-29k for future carrier roles , it will be interesting to see how upgrades are performed on that aircraft .
 
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Have any Indian pilot landed on the Vikramaditya yet ?
 
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Even with three Ac Chinese Navy will be stretched to limit by other naval forces , Passing Chinese AC in Indian ocean will be have little effect like a Indian AC visiting South China sea .

Indian testing of Vikra found it's a piece of cr@p. So Indian media is coming out with these articles to prepare for the inevitable.

INS Vikramaditya: At R 14,000cr and 10-long-yrs, is it worth it? - daily.bhaskar.com

Look what your Government says about your first AC


China Says Aircraft Carrier Only for Research, Training
 
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Russians have dumped Sukhoi's and are going for Mig-29k for future carrier roles , it will be interesting to see how upgrades are performed on that aircraft .

Maybe it's just lip service to please Indian to place an order for Mig-29k :coffee:, have Russians build Mig-29k for themself to serve on their aircrat carrier I'm just curious?
 
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