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.
India is smart. They see what China and North Korea are planning. After the US is done for (SF nuked/counter nuke Pyongyang / Kim gets paid off), either they or Russia are next.
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