As the enemy’s maritime presence grows, India has made a key step toward reinforcing its naval strength by commissioning its first home-built aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant. The INS Vikrant Sanskrit name standing for “powerful” or “courageous,” joins the Soviet-era INS Vikramaditya, which India purchased from Russia in 2004, in patrolling the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal.
The 262-meter carrier was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who called it “It’s a historic day and landmark achievement,” Modi stated. “It’s an example of the government’s thrust to make India’s defense sector self-reliant,” adding India is among a few nations with an indigenous carrier program.
The INS Vikrant, designed by the Indian Navy and built at Cochin Shipyard Limited in southern India, is the largest warship ever to be built in the country. It can carry a crew of about 1,600 people and operate a fleet of 30 aircraft, including fighter jets and helicopters. More than 75 percent of its components are indigenously procured, involving major industrial firms and more than 100 smaller ones.
Though the 47,400-ton warship took six years beyond its schedule and an estimated cost overrun of six times its estimate of Rs 20,000 crore ($2.5 billion), it could be fully deployed by the end of 2023. First, landing trials will be conducted with India’s Russian-made MiG-29K fighter aircraft. More than two dozen new fighters are planned for the carrier, with competition currently between France’s Rafale-M and Boeing’s F/A-18 Block III Super Hornet.
Modi spoke on the strategic relevance of the Indo-Pacific and the Indian Ocean. As Modi explained, “Today, this area is a big defense priority for us. We are working in every direction, from increasing the budget for the navy to enhancing its capacity.”
That includes two aircraft carriers, 10 destroyers, 12 frigates, and 20 corvette ships that make up the whole fleet. The older of the two aircraft carriers is the INS Vikramaditya, which was built in 1987 in the Soviet Union and served with both the Soviet and Russian navies before India bought it in 2004 for $2.35 billion.
While looking ahead, INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant will be deployed on the eastern seaboard for Milan-2024, a flagship international naval exercise, hosted by Vizag. Slated for February 19-27 next year, around 50 friendly countries will participate along with 20 foreign warships in the largest multilateral military war game India will ever host.
The need for a third aircraft carrier is being debated within an evolving military landscape in the Indo-Pacific. Successive navy chiefs have argued for three to allow two CBGs to project power on India’s eastern and western seaboard simultaneously. The opposition from the Indian Air Force and the tri-service chief, General Bipin Rawat, however, maintains that more submarines could be a better investment.
After all, the fighting effectiveness of an aircraft carrier is only as good as the robustness and capability of the aircraft flown from it. The Russian MiG-29K/KUB selected for IAC-1 has been dogged with a whole host of problems, forcing the Indian Navy to accelerate the acquisition of 57 “carrier-based multi-role fighters” or develop an indigenous “twin-engine deck-based fighter.”
The induction of INS Vikrant is one significant milestone on this journey as India gains more capability to bulwark its nation with naval power against regional security.