The chief of the Indian Navy, Admiral Karambir Singh, has proposed a third aircraft carrier and the Narendra Modi government called it a necessity in the current security environment in Asia. Given that an aircraft carrier takes 18 years to build also with cabinet approval in mind, as in the case of the 37,000-ton Vikrant, India’s national security planners will have to take a call to the marine giant now with China planning six aircraft carriers. of your own. Rising India, or what Admiral Karambir Singh defines as a five trillion dollar economy, must have the tools not only to protect itself, but also to project power.
The third carrier has become a topic of debate within Indian military circles and the navy has to counter an equally powerful argument about the platform’s survivability in the age of long-range ranged weapons. China, in fact, has a DF-21 missile with a range of 1,700 km that its propaganda machines call a ship killer.
While the Indian Navy believes that it should not be tied to the Indian peninsula for a power project, but rather be present offshore and in the deep ocean, the current economic environment is not in favor of a machine that it will cost almost $ 10 billion. The navy wants a 65,000-ton aircraft carrier with electromagnetic aircraft launch system, as opposed to the STOBAR (short take-off, barrier stop recovery system) ski jump aboard INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant will launch soon.
The counterargument of Indian security planners is that if India spends the same amount of money in converting some of its 1,062 island territories in the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean into military bases, then it can project air power beyond. from the horizon. towards the Straits of Malacca and the Persian Gulf. The collateral benefit would be the development of the island territories as refueling bays for ships passing between nine degree and six degree channels.
However, the first negative aspect against permanent bases in the island territories is that they would present a more vulnerable target to a combat weapon such as the Chinese “Guam Killer” DF 26 missile than a moving airfield with aircraft and missiles on board in the India. Ocean or the South China Sea.
With the doctrine of the post-Balakot and Uri Modi government of extinguishing the threat by striking at the source, an aircraft carrier becomes an essential operational requirement. The role of an aircraft carrier takes on much more importance in the context of China, as Han power is cushioned by the occupied territories of Uighur-dominated Xinjiang and Buddhist-dominated Tibet, which do not have a single problem with India. Therefore, to deter Han China, India must have expeditionary force capabilities beyond the Straits of Malacca. To top it off, the geographic location of India’s island territories may project power deep into the Indian Ocean below the Bay of Bengal and Southeast Asia, but not towards the tip of Africa.
With Pakistan’s P 3C Orion armed with 280 km range air-to-surface Harpoon missiles, Indian Navy warships are vulnerable to air threat unless there is an aircraft carrier force that not only nullifies the threatens but also dissuades the adversary. The delay in getting a ground fighter to take over the air threat to an Indian ship also works in favor of an aircraft carrier, whose aircraft can eliminate a target within a range of 300 to 400 kilometers. “The air bubble of an aircraft carrier task force is a powerful deterrent to any adversary. It has underground, surface, aerial and electronic warfare platforms to nullify the threat from all dimensions. The argument that the aircraft carrier is vulnerable to separation weapons does not work as all systems are vulnerable, ”said a senior Indian admiral who once commanded the INS Viraat fleet.
The argument that India should opt for more nuclear-powered submarines or SSNs with conventional weapons stands, but an underground platform cannot handle an airborne threat carrying depth charges for anti-submarine warfare.
While it is not possible for national security planners to prioritize a third carrier in the current economic scenario, a token amount should be set aside to develop plans, as taking an aircraft carrier to sea requires a large amount of money. time. India shouldn’t wake up a decade later to challenge expansionist China, which has set its sights on the Indian Ocean through satellite states like Pakistan and Myanmar.
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