India's old and new aircraft carriers. Image courtesy of The Times of India, February 23, 2015
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INS Vikrant "2" on launch November 2014. Photo courtesy.
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2016 - expected retirement of INS Viraat– acquired from UK 1987 – 28,000 tons displacement, 11 Sea Harriers.
2016 - INS Vikramadityarebuilt and handed over by Russia (2013) will be India’s only carrier, 45,000 tons, 24 MiG-29Ks.
2019 - INS Vikrant "2" India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC-I), under construction, expected ready 2019, 40,000 tons, 12 MiG-29Ks, 8 Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA). Construction of Vikrant has already been delayed by four years with repeated technical and budgetary issues. The "2" is sometimes informally used as Google searches simply for "INS Vikrant" often turn up the preceding INS Vikrant that was decommissioned in 1997.
2030 - INS Vishal(may be completed 2030) known as indigenous aircraft carrier-II (IAC-II), maybe nuclear propelled, 65,000 ton (displacement equal to China’s carrier Liaoning). May feature Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) being developed by the US for its new Ford class supercarriers. EMALs would allow full sized carrier aircraft, like the Super Hornet, to be launched. Vikramaditya’s and Vikrant’s ski-jumps only allow up to MiG-29 weight aircraft. If a successful design Vishal may be the first of class for 2 to 3 more 65,000 ton carriers (perhaps around 2035-2040) allowing Vikramaditya to retire.
India, like Russia, US, and even Australia often under-estimate the costs and build time of weapons system. Politicians, bureaucrats, military officers and arms builders all can under-estimate cost-length-complexity of their projects. The main aim is to placate the public and Treasuries whose tax-payer dollars go into paying for weapons systems that may take twice as long for twice the price.
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This Submarine Matters post originally carried an update of India's nuclear submarine INS Arihant and Chakra (enlarge design here) . They will feature in a new Submarine Matters article TBA.
Pete