Archie
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no mate, i am always for 3+ AC's in IN until i came to this thread, the important thing is that we want to patrol entire IO & if possible send our ships elsewhere, in that respect my concerns are legitimate.
One thing needs to be understood is that even in 2017 when Both Vikramaditya and Vikrant are in service , India will operationally Deploy only one Carrier out at sea at all times ,
While other will be undergoing either Maintenance or Used for conducting training exercise
An aircraft carrier normally spends 6-8 Months at sea , while IN is looking to deploy its carriers for 200-220 days a yr at sea
So their is a likely hood that both carriers will be operationally available for only 2 months in a yr
Hence we are likely to see initially only 1 CBG comprising 7 warships to be deployed
Same will be the case when IAC2 ENTERS SERVICE IN 2022-24
IAC 2 will ensure that India has two carriers at sea , at all times
Also By the time IAC 2 enters service , our P-17A , P-15B, P-28A and Kirvak IV Projects would have completed and IN would be having 10 Destroyers , 22 Frigates and 16 Corvettes , 4-6 Tankers in service along with 14 SSK, 4 SSBN and 1-2 SSN
So I am pretty sure we would be able to support 2 CBG AT ANY ONE TIME
As far as 3 CBGs are concerned , well we are unlikely to see 3 of them operationally deployed , since that would require atleast 4 Aircraft carriers to be available to us
And going by Indian Govt and Indian Shipyards slowness ,
By the time IAC 3 starts to entering service , it would probably be yr 2033 and we would be looking to find a suitable replacement for Vikramaditya , which has an expiry date of 2040-43