India joined an elite league of the world’s naval powers on Friday as it unveiled its first country-built aircraft carrier, the INS Vikrant.
With Vikrant worth over BRL 15.5 billion, India will join a small group of nations with more than one aircraft carrier or helicopter carrier in service and will become the third country after the UK and China , to have ordered an aircraft carrier built in-house within the last three years.
The aircraft carrier has filled the nation with “new confidence”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a ceremony scheduled at the Cochin shipyard in the southern Indian state of Kerala.
“The objective can be difficult. The challenges can be great. But when India makes a decision, no goal is impossible,” Modi said, before boarding the aircraft carrier and opening the country’s new naval flag.
“Until now, this type of aircraft carrier was only made by developed countries. Today, India, by joining this league, has taken another step towards becoming a developed nation,” Modi said, adding that the Indo-Pacific region remains “a major security priority” for India.
John Bradford, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said India’s commitment to the ship reflects its “long-term vision to maintain a state-of-the-art naval force.”
“There are looming questions about the survivability of any aircraft carrier in the missile age, but major navies – including those of the US, Japan, China and the UK – are doubling down on their investments in aircraft carriers. In that sense, India is staying in the race,” Bradford said.
Vikrant joins carrier INS Vikramaditya, a refurbished Soviet-era carrier purchased from Russia in 2004, in the India fleet.
With a displacement of around 40,000 tonnes, the Vikrant is slightly smaller than the Vikramaditya and the US, Chinese and UK aircraft carriers, although it is larger than Japan’s.
But analysts praised its firepower potential.
When its air wing is fully operational in the next few years, Vikrant will carry up to 30 aircraft, including MiG-29K fighter jets – to be launched from its ski-ramp-style deck – and helicopters, as well as defensive systems, including air missiles.
Powered by four gas turbine engines, its top speed is estimated at 52 km/h with a range of 13,890 kilometers.
“India is sending the message that it has the power, it has the aircraft carriers and therefore the air power to dominate the far reaches of the Indian Ocean,” said Ajai Shukla, a former Indian military officer turned defense analyst.
Analysts said the new aircraft carrier and the destroyers and frigates that will eventually make up its strike group also give India longer-range options.
“India can influence and coordinate possible security solutions to regional issues. Having an open ocean capability naval working group to contribute increases India’s influence and options. He doesn’t have to participate in a multilateral response, but he can do so or establish a separate independent presence if he wants to,” said Carl Schuster, a former US Navy captain who now teaches at Hawaii Pacific University.
The new aircraft carrier will allow India to take a greater role in the military exercises of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or “Quad”, an informal alliance of the United States, Japan, Australia and India.
For example, US and Japanese carriers participated in annual Malabar exercises with Quad members participating.
Building Vikrant was not easy for India.
The government signed off on her design and construction in 2003 and the keel was laid in February 2009. The ship was christened the Vikrant – meaning “courageous” or “victorious” in Sanskrit – and launched in August 2013.
But then the delays started: features needed to be redesigned, there were problems securing aviation equipment from Russia, and then there was the Covid-19 pandemic.
Still, experts say India will be able to increase its domestic shipbuilding capacity and learn from the experience.
“They now have the experience to build the next aircraft carrier more quickly and probably with a better design,” Schuster said.
The Indian Navy is considering building a second Indian aircraft carrier. This remains at the idea stage, but there has been speculation that any new aircraft carrier could be in the 65,000-ton range, roughly the size of the UK’s HMS Queen Elizabeth or China’s second aircraft carrier, the Shandong.
China is seen as India’s main naval competitor in the region. With two aircraft carriers in service and a much more advanced third launched last year, China is ahead of India both numerically and technologically, but analysts give India the edge in operational experience.
The Indian Navy began operating aircraft carriers in 1961. Its first aircraft carrier, which it acquired from the UK, was also called Vikrant. The first Vikrant was retired in 1997. A second British aircraft carrier, the INS Viraat, served in the Indian Navy for 30 years before its retirement in 2017.
China’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, was an unfinished Soviet-era ship that Beijing purchased from Ukraine in 1998, upgraded and finally launched in 2012. Its first domestically-built aircraft carrier, the Shandong, entered service in 2019 and in June 2022 it launched its third carrier, Fujian – more advanced with electromagnetic catapult-assisted launch systems similar to those used by the US.
“On paper, China’s new aircraft carriers have more capabilities in terms of payload and technology than Vikrant. However, India has decades of experience operating transport aviation forces while China is still learning,” said Bradford, an analyst in Singapore.
Even with that experience, it can take a year or more for Vikrant to fully upgrade as a fighting force. This is typical for aircraft carriers. America’s newest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford, launched in 2017 and is expected to have its first deployment later this year.
Source: CNN Brasil
