India Launches Proprietary Aircraft Carrier

/k/ isn't satisfying my rant on the subject, so you people will

The Indian Navy recently finished laying the hull for the INS Vikrant, a in-country designed aircraft carrier. The reasons, I have no idea. It seems like a giant waste of money to me.

/rant begin

The INS Vikrant is described as only being able to hold 12(!) MIG-29K's and 8(!) HAL Tejas Fighters.

Why.

They're dumping serious money into a project that can carry 20 fighters, of which none are properly sufficent to carry on Naval warfare.

Lets start with the MIG-29. The MIG-29K is a naval version of the MIG-29 series, which in retrospect, is a Multi-role fighter capable of BVR [Beyond Visual Range Engagement : AKA, using the radar systems to engage. Pilots don't see each other.]. According to the Indian Navy, they plan on using the fighter as not only CAP [Combat Air Patrol], but also as an Anti-Ship Platform. Considering most modern ships feature a CIWS Station, this would mean to fully be both CAP And ASW Capable, it would have to severely sacrifice one category. Anti-Ship weaponry isn't light. Infact, its heavy for a reason. One ASW won't sink a ship, the luckiest of hits will severely damage it as best. Factor in CIWS Stations, and you'd have to have multiple missiles to be effective. Multiple 500KG+ Missiles requiring stable firing, and there goes the CAP possibilities of the craft.

The HAL Tejas on the other hand, is a navally modified Delta Fighter designed for, well, CAS. It's sole role is to kill things on the ground and sea. I can appreciate this aspect. However, its hard to protect a carrier with Close-Range Weaponry such as the R-73. The INS Vikrant LACKS SUFFICENT CIWS SYSTEMS. That means its migs and Tejas have to CONSTANTLY protect it from Anti-Ship weaponry by hunting down the source. So Now, if you want to be picky, Either the migs or the tejas have to take up the CAP duty around the carrier.

Let's put a Scenario here. To be fair, we're going to limit each side to just ONE Aircraft Carrier.

India gets in a pissing war with the Chinese.

Now, you see, the Chinese have the Kuznetsov Class Carrier on their side. It carries SS-N-19 ASW's, and can effectively engage the Vikrant at 500KM+. The Vikrant, has no ASW weaponry located on it, and therefore relies on its aircraft. So, we're going to assume the indians will loiter outside of the Kuznetsov's Range. The Indians would launch their Fighters, which have to travel light on weaponry to compensate for fuel due to the increased range [Say 600KM] Let's assume the 20(!) SU-33 Aerial Superiority Fighters don't notice and engage at BVR Range. Let's even assume the poor Indians wouldn't try to dogfight the SU-33. They get within Standoff range and fire off a total of... Lets say, 2 ASW Weapons each for all 20 Aircraft. Thats 40 ASW Weapons. The Chinese would sadly be prepared. 8 CIWS Systems on the carrier allow it to engage a extreme variety of targets, the Kuznetsov in all reality is a floating fortress. The Vikrant, not so much. Less Tonnage, Less Armor... it'd get slaughtered by the Kuznetsov.


India's hopes for a navy are pretty much done with this carrier. I can appreciate the effort to scare Pakistan, but it's fruitless. All the Dosh pumped into this floating eyesore could have been spent on upgrades to their Surface fleet.

/rant

theyre just waving their dong

Been quite a few border shooting with pakistan over past (insert amount of time since the war)

Yea, like I said India's just trying to scare the Paki's.... Failing horribly...

The real way to scare pakistan is to have girls having rights. Course india would never do that...

India's pretty backward as it is... giving women rights would cause civil war

Emagine, soldiers are taking over a land and they start bloywood dancing to indian song as they are doing it.

Pjosip wrote:Emagine, soldiers are taking over a land and they start bloywood dancing to indian song as they are doing it.

I haven't laughed that hard in weeks. +1 Internet to you.

Some of the most enterprising and greatest thinkers of India's current generation are actually women, though they are restricted in terms of civil right.

As for the aircraft carrier, it's defective because it's India. They buy export weapons systems and vehicles from Russia because they're "new", then proceed to make their own variant to try and bring it up to Russian standards, as the models they buy are usually downgrades. This has seen very limited success. India has a large military, but not a force that could sustain a proper occuptation.

It really is a case of scare tactics, it's a display of Indian superiority and force. It makes me laugh that they've dumped this money into the Navy, when the education system desperately needs it, though the move doesn't surprise me in the least.

LOL The Dumbasses just sunk one of their own Subs in Port.

India is surely the greatest country