
New Delhi: The Indian Navy has dropped plans to simultaneously operate three aircraft carriers but is focusing on the second indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC) which will be a replacement for INS Vikramaditya.
This is a change in the naval policy which had plans to be a three-carrier force. Multiple naval chiefs in the past, including the immediate predecessor Admiral Hari Kumar, had pitched for a third aircraft carrier.
ThePrint in 2020 reported that the government was against the Navy’s view that it needed 3 aircraft carriers, with one available at all times if any of the other two went for a refit.
The government wanted the Navy to focus more on submarines rather than aircraft carriers.
Former Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat had publicly spoken against the need for three carriers and had called them ‘sitting ducks’. He also said the Navy’s demand for a second indigenous aircraft would be considered after assessing performance of indigenously-built aircraft carriers.
Incidentally, former Navy chief Admiral Kumar wanted to place a repeat order of INS Vikrant which is a mere 45,000-tonnes aircraft. Previous chiefs had spoken of the need to have a larger aircraft carrier which can take more fighters and tilt the scales in warfare rather than carrying a limited number of aircraft.
Sources in the defence establishment said that INS Vikramaditya, which is a refurbished Russian aircraft carrier, will have to be phased out in the next 10-12 years.
They said plans continue for a second indigenous aircraft carrier which will be its replacement. “An aircraft carrier will take about 10 to 12 years to build, starting from the sanction stage. Several within the Indian Navy felt the need for the second indigenous aircraft carrier should not be projected as a third but replacement for Vikramaditya,” a source said.
A project study initiated during the tenure of former defence minister Manohar Parrikar decided the second indigenous carrier would be a 65,000 CATOBAR (Catapult Assisted Take Off but Arrested Recovery) system with electric propulsion.
The government at that time wanted the Indian Navy to be at maximum a two-carrier based force rather than three and more. The government has always believed that sea denial is important through the use of submarines.
It was felt that aircraft carriers were capital intensive—it was not just the aircraft carriers cost but also that of the entire Carrier Battle Group and fighter aircraft.
China has developed long-range, anti-aircraft carrier missiles, specifically meant to take down American vessels, which are much larger and sophisticated than Indian ones.
The Modi government has already tweaked the 30-year-old submarine building programme. Instead of 24 conventional submarines envisaged, the government has now sanctioned 18 conventional diesel-electric submarines and six nuclear-powered ones. This is besides the nuclear ballistic missile submarine programme.
source : theprint