India's only aircraft carrier is going away for eight months, and it's not a good thing

While we Indians are happy thinking that we belong to a country that is an emerging superpower, the truth is that this ‘so-called’ emerging superpower is not going to have a single operational aircraft carrier for the coming eight months.

The only aircraft carrier that India has, called INS Vikramaditya, is undergoing maintenance refit, and would be fit for use only after eight months, and till then, we are pretty much without one.

The problem doesn’t end here. The 44,570-tonne INS Vikramaditya is probably going to be the only aircraft carrier in India for the next six-seven years.

The central audit body, the CAG of India, presented a report in Parliament yesterday, which said that the second aircraft carrier of India, the 40,000-tonne homemade INS Vikrant, which is already been delayed for long now, will be ready only by 2023.

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Talking of the use of aircraft carriers, they are used to display raw combat power when they are in the high seas, with fighter jets and missiles ready to be launched in case of adversaries. It’s because of this use that the Indian Navy has been asking for three aircraft carriers, one each for the western and eastern sea-boards, and one extra in case of these timely refits.

However, the CAG report, which slammed the defence PSUs for being sluggish with the projects given to them, says that we can’t expect even a two-carrier force till 2023.

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However, the Navy is confident that INS Vikrant, first approved in May 1999 and beginning its construction in November 2006 will be ready by December 2018.

"INS Vikrant will not have its Russian aviation complex (aviation armaments, mobile systems, arresting gear, hydraulic stations and other equipment) and the Barak-8 long-range surface-to-air missile systems by then. But we are planning sea trials from 2018 onwards," a senior officer told ET.

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