India without carrier as Beijing takes huge strides

NEW DELHI: India may fancy itself as a regional superpower but does not have an aircraft carrier prowling on the high seas. Its solitary carrier, the 54-year-old INS Viraat, is out of action for several months once again for a major refit to ensure it can soldier on for another three to four years.

Despite the Indian Ocean having emerged as the new strategic theatre between India and China, the Indian politico-military establishment’s lack of long-term planning and timely decision-making has all but dashed the Navy’s long-standing ambition to deploy two potent carrier battle groups (CBGs).

China, in contrast, is taking huge strides in the arena. After last year’s commissioning of its first carrier, the 65,000-tonne Liaoning, Beijing is furiously engaged in building more to further expand its “blue-water operations’’.

Meanwhile, as part of its pivot towards Asia-Pacific , the US has at least six of the 11 American CBGs will be deployed in the region. Incidentally, each US carrier is over 94,000 tonne and capable of handling 80-90 fighters.

But the Indian Navy is continuing to flog an old warhorse because of huge delays in other carrier projects. One, Russia will deliver INS Vikramaditya, or the 44,570-tonne Admiral Gorshkov refurbished for $2.33 billion, only by December at the earliest, a good two decades after India first showed interest in it. Two, Navy will not get its hands on the 40,000-tonne indigenous aircraft carrier being built at Cochin Shipyard anytime before 2018. The follow-on 65,000-tonne IAC-II still remains a mere pipedream.