Robert Beckhusen, National Interest: India's Aircraft Carriers Might Just Be the Ultimate Paper Tiger
The Indian Navy has put out a proposal for its third aircraft carrier, tentatively titled the Vishal due to enter service in the latter 2020s. The 65,000-ton Vishal will be significantly larger than India’s sole current carrier, the Vikramaditya known formerly as the ex-Soviet Admiral Gorshkov, and the incoming second one, the domestically-built Vikrantwhich is expected to enter service later in 2018.
To see why Vishal is a big deal for the Indian Navy, one needs only to look at her proposed air wing — some 57 fighters, more than Vikramaditya — 24 MiG-29Ks — and Vikrant‘s wing of around 30 MiG-29Ks. While below the 75+ aircraft aboard a U.S. Navy Gerald R. Ford-class supercarrier, Vishal will be a proper full-size carrier and India’s first, as the preceding two are really small-deck carriers and limited in several significant ways.
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Update #1: Aircraft carrier Vikrant to be commissioned by 2020: Official (Economic Times/PTI)
Update #2: Navy confident of commissioning aircraft carrier Vikrant in two years (The Hindu)
WNU Editor: There is an arms race underway in Asia right now. China's building a third aircraft carrier .... China's Third Aircraft Carrier Will Be A Massive Leap Forward (January 21, 2018) .... so why not India.
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