Vikrant: The Elephant of Indian waters is taking a rebirth amidst new demographic challenges 

By Rahul Kamble

India is all set to achieve a historic feat when on September 2, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will preside over the commissioning of the country’s first indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC-1), formally known as ‘INS VIKRANT’. The timing happens to be crucial, when China is building up its presence in the Indian Ocean region. 

Vikrant is the largest warship to have ever been built in India, and the first indigenously designed and built aircraft carrier for the Indian Navy. It puts India in an elite club of nations that have the capability to design and build these giant, powerful warships.With the commissioning, India will showcase its capability and material technology to design and build aircraft carriers after indigenously building three nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines. Only few nations currently have the capability of manufacturing an aircraft carrier — India joins this elite club now. Experts and Navy officials said India has demonstrated the capacity and self-reliance to build what is considered to be one of the most advanced and complex battleships in the world. According to the Navy, over 76 per cent of the material and equipment on board IAC-1 is indigenous. This includes 23,000 tonnes of steel, 2,500 km of electric cables, 150 km of pipes, and 2,000 valves, and a wide range of finished products including rigid hull boats, galley equipment, airconditioning and refrigeration plants, and steering gear. INS Vikrant has been designed by the Indian Navy’s Directorate of Naval Design (DND), and is being built at Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL), a public sector shipyard under the Ministry of Shipping. India’s earlier aircraft carriers were either built by the British or the Russians. The INS Vikramaditya, currently the Navy’s only aircraft carrier that was commissioned in 2013, started out as the Soviet-Russian Admiral Gorshkov. The country’s two earlier carriers, INS Vikrant and INS Viraat, were originally the British-built HMS Hercules and HMS Hermes before being commissioned into the Navy in 1961 and 1987 respectively. INS Vikrant, the predecessor of IAC-1, a Majestic-class 19,500-tonne warship, was the name of India’s much-loved first aircraft carrier, a source of immense national pride over several decades of service before it was decommissioned in 1997. India acquired Vikrant from the United Kingdom in 1961, which carrier played a stellar role in the 1971 war with Pakistan that led to the birth of Bangladesh. Even after it’s commissioning on September 2, Vikrant will be fully operational only a year later, with the landing trials of MIG-29K fighters being completed by mid 2023.

INS Vikrant will operate an air wing consisting of 30 aircraft including the new fighters, MiG-29Ks, Kamov-31 choppers, MH-60R multi-role helicopters and advanced light helicopters. India plans to buy 26 carrier-based fighters for Vikrant, the largest warship to be built in the country, through a government-to-government deal to meet the navy’s requirements, with the US firm competing with French aircraft maker Dassault Aviation that has pitched its Rafale-M jets to the Indian Navy. Also there has been an increasing curious popularity for the proposed desi homegrown ‘HAL-Twin Engine Deck Based Fighter’ popularly known as TEDBF. TEDBF is also looked at as a landmark in the future defence Arsenal of India. Unlike the Rafale and Super Hornet, which are 4.5-generation fighter jets, India’s future indigenous TEDBF fighter is likely to be a fifth-generation aircraft. According to reports, the TEDBF fighter will have a more vigorous thrust and payload capacity than the Dassault Rafales. The TEDBF fighters will be able to reach Mach 1.6 speeds, according to the latest numbers released by the ADA. According to sources, the fighter jet will have an internal weapons bay equipped with advanced short-range air-to-air (ASRAM) and Astra beyond-visual-range (BVR) air-to-air missiles. It will also be able to carry the anti-radiation missiles Rudram-1 and Rudram-2. These characteristics make the HAL TEDBF a potential future fighter jet for the INS Vikrant. The TEDBF will be equipped with various homegrown Indian weapons systems and avionics, including a domestic AESA radar. However, India will have to wait for approximately a decade more for the Marvel to rock the skies.The first flight is expected to be in 2026, with production planned for 2031. By then a Third Aircraft carrier (IAC-2), is also looked at as an ambitious project which is on table.

 Since 2015, the Navy has been seeking approval to build a third aircraft carrier for the country, which, if approved, will become India’s second Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC-2). This proposed carrier, to be named INS Vishal, is intended to be a giant 65,000-tonne vessel, much bigger than IAC-1 and the INS Vikramaditya.The Navy has been trying to convince the government of the “operational necessity” of having a third carrier.. Navy officials have argued that to project power, it is essential that India is able to venture far out on the oceans, which can be done best with an aircraft carrier.For the government to be convinced of the need for IAC-2, however, a “change in mindset” is required. India’s first Chief of Defence Staff Late General Bipin Rawat, who was then tasked with prioritising acquisition for the armed forces, had spoken against investing in another aircraft carrier, and had instead suggested that Lakshadweep and the Andaman & Nicobar islands could be developed as “unsinkable” Naval assets.But Navy officials were of the thought that to defend the vast Indian Ocean Region, persistent air power is required day and night. A third carrier will provide the Navy with surge capability, which will be essential in the future, they have been vocal about.Also, it is argued that now that India has developed the capability to build such vessels, it should not be whittled away. The expertise gained by the Navy and the country over the past 60 years in the “art of maritime aviation” should not be wasted either.While the United States Navy has 11 aircraft carriers, China too is moving ahead aggressively with its aircraft carrier programme. It has two carriers now, a third is in the making, and another two are likely to be commissioned within a decade.Navy officials point out that even if India gives the IAC-2 project the go-ahead now, it will be over 10 years before the warship is commissioned.

The Chinese activity in the Indian Ocean region has steadily increased over the past decade with no less than 53 Satellite and Ballistic Missile tracking vessels also euphemistically called Research Vessels monitored by the Indian Navy units since 2020. While Beijing is trying to make the South China Sea its backyard, it is sending more warships to the Indian Ocean and far Pacific in the name of maritime diplomacy or anti-piracy operations. It is only a matter of time before the Chinese carrier strike force will be transiting through the Indian Ocean and putting pressure on the Indian Navy and the sea lanes emanating from the Persian Gulf. India’s adversary is well defined and there is no illusion about this within the national security planners.The Indian Navy must move from a maritime diplomacy mindset and be prepared to take on the adversary on the high seas. It needs to move away from simply force projection to force application. Simply put, the Indian Navy needs to show teeth as the theatre has shifted from mere blockading of Karachi harbour to the Indo-Pacific and against an adversary who wants to be the number one power in the world and is willing to throw all rule books out of the window in pursuit of its ambition. The brazen and uncouth statement of the Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka, describing India as having occupied the Island nation 17 times in history is just something. The Chinese war dance around Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific cannot merely be dismissed as Kabuki for domestic audiences. Just like May 2020 in Ladakh, China is applying force and announcing its presence as a pre-eminent power on the global stage.

(Author is a medical student in Sangli, Maharashtra. The views expressed are personal)