IAC-2 Future Aircraft Carrier Project - News & Discussions

[Kshithij Sharma]

Did you hear abt Brahmos missiles or Prahar? How come these are supposed to be effective against Chinese carriers only ??
Aircraft carrier is already an after thought.

The evolution, Triremes that would ram into each other.. to -- triremes that can fire each other with catapults and ballistas .... ships that can carry more cannons .... ships that can carry 16th inch guns at least 8 or 9 ..... aircraft carrier....

The evolution has gone on bases of which has better fire power and can hit enemy at a distance, So in carrier vs battle ship scenario, the carrier has advantage due to range, at say range of more than 80 miles the carrier is supreme, but as the range is say 30 kms the probablity of victory goes more in favour of the battleship..

Thus if a ship is heavily armed and can take out the carrier from range well beyond the range of the carrier planes, would you still think its era of carrier?

A Squadrons of planes carrying Brahmos can fire the missiles from around 300 kms from carrier or fire prahar from smaller missile frigates from longer distance and then simply let the missile take down the target, so here you have a weapon with a much longer range than carrier.

Also if the carrier manages to sink the missile boat its acceptable loss, but if the missiles are able to put the carrier out of action, thats era of carrier OFFICIALLY OVER. We have to just wait for another conflict where one has the carrier and other has long range missiles like Brahmos and you will see this to be true.

The carrier is surrounded by battle group at a radius of 100km to ensure that enemy assets don't come too close. Also, the range of carriers are much more than Brahmos missile as the planes have SAR radars which can scan the areas upto much more distance. Since planes fly high (20000-30000 feet), they can easily spot almost all enemy from much longer distance. In addition, the planes themselves have ranges over 500km which is good enough to shoot down any enemy ship. The Brahmos launched can also be stopped by SAM of the carrier along with SAM of the ships from battle group. The ship can traven at 50kmph speed. In 5 minutes, they can easily move about 4km from their original location. Brahmos takes that much time to cover 300km

 

[smestarz]

USA has two oceans on its sides and so, there is need to have more carriers. Also they have a lot of commitments to territories in south east asia etc and thus they need to have carriers. Carriers are good against countries that are not thats strong, and you are able to have more nos than them and carrier force be part of such a big force. The Era of Aircraft carrier is gone, Carriers are not cheap and cost billions and at fraction of this cost we can develop Anti carrier weapons that can take down these ships,

Carriers are like Dinosaurs, ultimately it was the Rats that survided and the Dinosaurs became extinct. Thus if we are able to build and develop sort of "pocket destroyers" or "pocket frigates" these have a good range and can be armed with at a dozen anti aircraft missiles, Two CIWS. Anti submarine rockets and at least a dozen long range cruise missiles we are in position to start by destroying the Battle group as without the battle group the carrier will lose its protection, It might be stupid to take down the carrier without taking down the battlegroup

@Paro @smestarz thank god atleast someone understands we are not the USN or PLAN and that we should develop our own lateral strategies to achieve deterrence.

 

[smestarz]

You summed up Indian armed forces in one sentence. What Indian navy was supposed to do decades ago, they are doing it NOW, which is an after thought. Like you say .. the tejas is late by few decades, its true, and so is the idea of having carrier now. It can be useful in Indian ocean with a lot of space to "play" but not good in pond called bay of bengal

Very bad idea. There are no "lateral strategies". You need carriers if you want to go on major offensives, or else you can only be a littoral navy. IN identified this decades ago, that's why we have always operated carriers. Without carriers, you can only be a second rung navy.

We are no different from the USN and PLAN. IN will be a 200-ship navy by 2027, and even bigger after that. That's pretty much right up there with the USN and PLAN.

 

[smestarz]

Good example.. during pearl harbour what was the reconnaissance like? The Japanese had to rely on Submarines. If there was surveillance like now, the Japanese would have firstly ensured that they had attacked when the carriers were in pearl harbour. And possibly we would have been writing this in Japanese.

Firstly what is important for any navy is
1. Is the navy able to protect our homeland from Maritime threats? NOT REALLY. We do not have efficient intelligence planes. We have P-8 but in limited nos, It would be better to develop an amphibous AEW or AWACS so that it can work together with other naval assets for long range intelligence and threat awareness.

2. If there is an attack on Pakistan or China would we be using our aircraft carrier in the offensive DEFINTELY NO . Even during war with Pakistan we had ensured that our aircraft carrier is far off from the action to protect it from getting destroyed.

3. Why do we need carriers now? For power projection.. where exactly? If there is trouble in Maldives are we going to send CBG there to handle the problem? No.

China is also like India trying to build aircraft carrier, but they have a big interest in Africa that they want to protect and carrier is small part of their solution. In case there is a war with Taiwan, even the Chinese might ensure that their carrier is safely docked in north most ports to protect it. China like India is caught in desire for a Carrier force, but no real application for that. But yes, Chinese can patrol them on their eastern area, but there is a lot of land to their East where if enemy keep their planes, they can safely attack land targets in China which have to be repelled by land based planes.

Like you said, we had ideas a decade ago, Just to give an example ... as a kid, India was fascinated by the black colour land line phone, and now when it is earning, it goes and buys that phone and wants to show off,. that too in era of 4G phones ..

In a naval war, land bases are extremely vulnerable, Pearl Harbor. So you will need ships to counter other ships, Battle of Midway. And because of fighter aircraft, carriers have the longest and most effective reach. Also our mainland is so far away from the chokepoints that only FGFA will be able to operate at that distance, and not effectively enough. All other aircraft won't.

P8Is, helis, refuelers are only support platforms. What we need is offensive platforms, that's fighter aircraft, destroyers, subs etc. And these operate best within a CBG. P-8I alone can't do anything on its own if it is not escorted or is not operating over our own ships.

For example, a lone destroyer or even 10 destroyers cannot see beyond a few dozen kilometers, whereas a carrier, because of aircraft, will have its first line of defence 500Km away from the center. A CBG will be spread out in a radius of 300Km, will have aircraft 400-500Km away from the ships and will be able to see and strike targets at least 1000Km away.

If we are to fight in the SCS or the Pacific, we will definitely need carriers. If we don't, then the Chinese will bring the fight to us, where they will pound us with missiles from all directions, that's the last thing we need.

Our land bases are fine for now, but after 2030, it won't be enough to stop the Chinese.



By 2027, we will have 200 ships, China will have 400 ships. But by 2037, we could be on par, minus carriers, which we need to be on par with by 2047. They will have many carriers by 2037. They will have to contend with the Americans and Japanese, so we are in a much more comfortable position for sometime. That's why we can delay our carrier acquisition program by a few years, but we can't abandon it.

But if we want to start operating supercarriers in 2040, we should start working on it now. So we will need to start designing and building reactors, new carrier aircraft, aircraft launch and recovery systems, ship defences etc. IN's immediate wishlist is a 3 carrier force, which will double to 6 carriers after 2040.

After 2030, the top three navies will be PLAN, USN and IN. The fourth biggest, probably the Russians, will likely be less than half as big as the IN. So we have a reason to operate a lot of carriers in the long run.

Whatever that you say needs fixing will have to be fixed over the next 5 years. We need to fill up the IAF's inventory and bring them to near squadron strength over the next 5 years on contract. The same with the navy's requirement for new subs and helicopters. All these need to be on contract in the next 5 years. After this is done, it's the next batch of contracts that will determine our place in the world. It's the new batch of contracts that will have FMBT, FGFA, new carriers, tranche 2 SSNs, cruisers, destroyers etc.

 

[smestarz]

Please do a maths. 100 kms is as per you the Radius of battle group, thus the carrier is central and then it has to send its planes to protect this cover. Thus if a plane has to fly just ahead of the lead ship or distant ship, its circumference of travel would be about 1250 kms that is just the circumference of the carrier group, Do you know how many planes might be needed to cover this circumference? Also it wont be a continuous sortie. So 3 aircraft groups have to take off at a time and cover 120 degrees and back to the carrier to ensure the integrity. This is just 100 km radius, if the plane goes 100 kms away, then guess they will need more planes to provide overall protection thus needing more supplies.
Further the attacking force has an advantage to select the direction of attack. And with missiles like Prahar with range of 1200 kms those can be launched using info from Satellites and also since this attacking ship has its own anti aircraft missiles, it can protect itself from the few planes it encounters (if it does) and be able to move closer to the target carrier and launch its Brahmos and swarm the target

The carrier is surrounded by battle group at a radius of 100km to ensure that enemy assets don't come too close. Also, the range of carriers are much more than Brahmos missile as the planes have SAR radars which can scan the areas upto much more distance. Since planes fly high (20000-30000 feet), they can easily spot almost all enemy from much longer distance. In addition, the planes themselves have ranges over 500km which is good enough to shoot down any enemy ship. The Brahmos launched can also be stopped by SAM of the carrier along with SAM of the ships from battle group. The ship can traven at 50kmph speed. In 5 minutes, they can easily move about 4km from their original location. Brahmos takes that much time to cover 300km

 

[Kshithij Sharma]

Please do a maths. 100 kms is as per you the Radius of battle group, thus the carrier is central and then it has to send its planes to protect this cover. Thus if a plane has to fly just ahead of the lead ship or distant ship, its circumference of travel would be about 1250 kms that is just the circumference of the carrier group, Do you know how many planes might be needed to cover this circumference? Also it wont be a continuous sortie. So 3 aircraft groups have to take off at a time and cover 120 degrees and back to the carrier to ensure the integrity. This is just 100 km radius, if the plane goes 100 kms away, then guess they will need more planes to provide overall protection thus needing more supplies.
Further the attacking force has an advantage to select the direction of attack. And with missiles like Prahar with range of 1200 kms those can be launched using info from Satellites and also since this attacking ship has its own anti aircraft missiles, it can protect itself from the few planes it encounters (if it does) and be able to move closer to the target carrier and launch its Brahmos and swarm the target

Look man, India has helicopter born AEWACS too. Even mini AEWACS can be used for surveillance. The battle group will also have helicopters doing ASW role as well as scaning for any ships/snorkels on the sea. Also, I never said that the plane will unnecessarily fly 100km for sortie based surveillance. I said that planes fly at 30k feet and can use SAR to watch and reflect signals of warships from far across. With powerful radar, even areas upto 400km on the sea can be scanned easily. Since the planes are right above the carrier in the sky, it can ensure that 400km radius around carrier is clear of ships. The helicopter based AEWACS from battle group ships will further scan areas from a distance of 100km from carrier and double check the accuracy.

ICBM can't be launched against ships nor any ballistic missiles. Prahaar may have some cruising ability but even it is not maneuverable. It is like a hypersonic glide vehicle and moves in a straight line. Carriers move at 30-50kmph and every 2 minutes minimum 1km of distance is moved which makes targeting very difficult from such long range.

 

[smestarz]

USN has helicopters and yet it uses E-2D as AWACS did you wonder why?
Helicopters are excellent for VTOL or for hovering, but what helicopters lack is Speed, range and ceiling, as you know higher the ceiling, better the surveillance, Also it does not have high flight ceiling as Planes., Also planes travel much more faster than helicopters and hence better at survellance. So a chopper say 100 kms away cannot really scan 400 kms away. Further, when carrier is moving, it is moving in a group, and not difficult to track via satellite, but on other hand, when you are on CBG, you have to scan few thousand square miles and satellites cannot be that useful in this scenario.

No one is talking of ICBMS here we are talking of cruise missiles which are being developed and used by India to target enemy carrier force

Look man, India has helicopter born AEWACS too. Even mini AEWACS can be used for surveillance. The battle group will also have helicopters doing ASW role as well as scaning for any ships/snorkels on the sea. Also, I never said that the plane will unnecessarily fly 100km for sortie based surveillance. I said that planes fly at 30k feet and can use SAR to watch and reflect signals of warships from far across. With powerful radar, even areas upto 400km on the sea can be scanned easily. Since the planes are right above the carrier in the sky, it can ensure that 400km radius around carrier is clear of ships. The helicopter based AEWACS from battle group ships will further scan areas from a distance of 100km from carrier and double check the accuracy.

ICBM can't be launched against ships nor any ballistic missiles. Prahaar may have some cruising ability but even it is not maneuverable. It is like a hypersonic glide vehicle and moves in a straight line. Carriers move at 30-50kmph and every 2 minutes minimum 1km of distance is moved which makes targeting very difficult from such long range.

 

[Kshithij Sharma]

USN has helicopters and yet it uses E-2D as AWACS did you wonder why?
Helicopters are excellent for VTOL or for hovering, but what helicopters lack is Speed, range and ceiling, as you know higher the ceiling, better the surveillance, Also it does not have high flight ceiling as Planes., Also planes travel much more faster than helicopters and hence better at survellance. So a chopper say 100 kms away cannot really scan 400 kms away. Further, when carrier is moving, it is moving in a group, and not difficult to track via satellite, but on other hand, when you are on CBG, you have to scan few thousand square miles and satellites cannot be that useful in this scenario.

No one is talking of ICBMS here we are talking of cruise missiles which are being developed and used by India to target enemy carrier force

Helicopters are capable of reaching ceilings of 20000 feet. Even at 10k feet, they can act as a hovering AEWACS to scan the limited area around them. To scan the ground is easier than scanning the sky as ground is 2D in nature and hence limited datapoints. So, the helicopeters may not be good AEWACS to check aerial threats but definitely can scan for ships across few hundred km by hovering at heights.

Prahaar is not cruise missile. It is a ballistic cum cruise missile. But it is not as maneuverable as cruise missile to hit targets with pinpoint accuracy. In fact, even Brahmos can't hit a moving target at 300km with accuracy as the time taken will be 300seconds by which time the target would have moved a few kilometres. The real firing range for anti ship missiles are much lower if accuracy is a prime concern

 

[AllStirFry]

Carriers are big targets and to try and protect them we need to have a carrier group, which then makes it a nice target for enemy and a bit difficult one too. But with all the missiles that are now available, it would not be difficult to target such a CBG with swarm and mix of missiles. for example Prahar are launched first and due to their subsonic speed they take time to reach the target and then at optimum time fire the brahmos which have shorter range but can take out the ships protecting the battle group. One target can become many.
So best would be to,

1. Develop more destroyer or frigate classes with better SAMs CIWS and also Surface to surface missiles.
2. Develop amphibian AWACS say maybe using US-2 as base,
3. Develop Naval air bases near important harbours and keep long range MRCAs that can do various strike, interdiction, air superiority, EW and other roles within the sphere of influence.
4. Develop MALE and HALE with better sensors to have a complete picture of whats happening say 200 kms around our maritime border and beyond.
5. Develop submarines not only SSBN but also silent diesel electric submarines and try to increase their range so that they can patrol and control not only our end of Malacca strait but also be able to move silent in Yellow sea and be threat to PLAN in case of war. Diesel electric submarines are silent and stealthy and excellent sub killers.

If you take a map of the IOR region and take a point say Port Blair for example and draw a circle to scale of say 850 kms (wiki combat radiius)radius that's how much area/airspace Mig 29s based at port blair can effectively exert control over. If its the MKIs it could be double. Gurus kindly correct me. But the point is you can still see how small a area it actually is on the map and how much of the vast IOR is without effective air cover. This will give you an insight into the importance of carriers, which can take the airbase wherever we need it - from Malacca to the horn of Africa.

 

[ghostwhowalks]

Imagine this.... A squadron of su30mki flying off Andaman and Vikky patrolling 500 nm south of it. The strait of Malacca is effectively choked. The Chinese will be left gasping. Without a carrier you can't do this.

 

[smestarz]

You are more or less answering exactly what I am saying, I just used Su-34 and also added that it depends on the naval doctrine.
Land based Su-30 or Su-34 from say Vizag, Chennai kolkata and Port Blair in between them cover the entire Bay of Bengal the problem putting a carrier in Bay of Bengal now is that the chinese have foothold in Myaanmar and Bangladesh and Also sri lankya,. thus not really something ideal for carrier. YES, its excellent for IOR region, but our naval doctrine is very confused. We want to be a sovereign non interfering country which wants to protect and maintain its territorial integrity and not interfere in other countries matters except those in our protection like Maldives and Mauritius,
For these countries lower assets like destroyers suffice.

We say we want to be a Blue Fleet with carriers etc, also the naval doctrine says we need carriers, but the political doctrine and naval doctrine are not actually matching. Most indians want a carrier because its matter of pride and Ego and Pakistan has none, USA has 10 and we possibly have more nos of carriers than most other countries.

The days of carrier are gone, the evolution from Triremes to Carrier was based on how powerfully and and at what distance can your ship destroy the other. The era of battleships was abruptly ended by Attack on Pearl harbour where the world seeing the destruction acknowledged that the Era of carrier has started. Carriers are powerful weapons, but their main weapon is aircraft carrier thus, the CBG is powerful but its limitation is the range of the planes. Note that even during the Gulf war and even during the Syrian conflict, USA and Russia respectively used their long range missiles Tomahawk and Kalibr respectively. During the syrian conflict, how many Russian carriers were involved? For a nation to even think to win a conflict is to first develop and build intelligence gathering forces and have bright minds to interpret the intelligence. Without credible intelligence, you can win war only by fluke.

BTW the IOR is dominated by the American base at Diego Garcia and not by a carrier

If you take a map of the IOR region and take a point say Port Blair for example and draw a circle to scale of say 850 kms (wiki combat radiius)radius that's how much area/airspace Mig 29s based at port blair can effectively exert control over. If its the MKIs it could be double. Gurus kindly correct me. But the point is you can still see how small a area it actually is on the map and how much of the vast IOR is without effective air cover. This will give you an insight into the importance of carriers, which can take the airbase wherever we need it - from Malacca to the horn of Africa.

 

[smestarz]

Have you seen the global maps? Su-30 MKI from Andaman can effectively oversee what traffic passes through Malacca strait, Andaman at this part of the mouth and Singapore at the other side, and that is why the Brits wanted to maintain control over Singapore.
With a destroyer or two at our side of Malacca strait and Su-30 MKI or P-8I we can choke that,
Vilky wont travel alone, it would be with its CBG that is an over kill

Imagine this.... A squadron of su30mki flying off Andaman and Vikky patrolling 500 nm south of it. The strait of Malacca is effectively choked. The Chinese will be left gasping. Without a carrier you can't do this.

 

[ghostwhowalks]

Have you seen the global maps? Su-30 MKI from Andaman can effectively oversee what traffic passes through Malacca strait, Andaman at this part of the mouth and Singapore at the other side, and that is why the Brits wanted to maintain control over Singapore.
With a destroyer or two at our side of Malacca strait and Su-30 MKI or P-8I we can choke that,
Vilky wont travel alone, it would be with its CBG that is an over kill

Pls note the bold part. The fact that you feel its an overkill is exactly the reason why the CBG will be needed. Do you think the Chinese will let their merchant shipping go unescorted after the first instance of blockade by IN? No. The Chinese ships will in all likelihood be accompanied by the PLAN CBG. Now, if you have a squadron of J15s taking off from Liaoning, and the only aerial assets youhave are Andaman based MKIs then its a straight up one on one fight.

But, if the PLAN commander also has to contend with a flight of Mig 29Ks off Vikramaditya simultaneously, he will have to deploy hald his sqad to counter them, All of a sudden, the odds overwhelmingly turn in India's favour. Withoout an AC, you cant have those odds, unless Malaysia or Indonesia allow India to have an airbase on their territory.

the destroyers can put up the blockade but the air assets will be needed to enforce it, especially if the PLAN bring their carrier into the party. And there's no reason to assume that they wont.

 

[Kshithij Sharma]

Pls note the bold part. The fact that you feel its an overkill is exactly the reason why the CBG will be needed. Do you think the Chinese will let their merchant shipping go unescorted after the first instance of blockade by IN? No. The Chinese ships will in all likelihood be accompanied by the PLAN CBG. Now, if you have a squadron of J15s taking off from Liaoning, and the only aerial assets youhave are Andaman based MKIs then its a straight up one on one fight.

But, if the PLAN commander also has to contend with a flight of Mig 29Ks off Vikramaditya simultaneously, he will have to deploy hald his sqad to counter them, All of a sudden, the odds overwhelmingly turn in India's favour. Withoout an AC, you cant have those odds, unless Malaysia or Indonesia allow India to have an airbase on their territory.

the destroyers can put up the blockade but the air assets will be needed to enforce it, especially if the PLAN bring their carrier into the party. And there's no reason to assume that they wont.

Airbase is much more potent than carriers as there is no restriction for ammunition, fuel or length of runways. The SAMs to defend against enemy missile and aircrafts will also have huge number of missiles stored. So, the fight between carrier and a land base will result in destruction of carrier unless the land base has inferior technology.

The most important aspect of carrier for India is covering of Bay of Bengal ships, Maldives and choking off the Arab-Pakistan supplies in Arabian sea. Andaman can only help in controlling some parts of Bay of Bengal as there are ways to bypass Malacca Straits by going a bit south and the taking straits near Bali islands. In such cases, the areas in the open seas can be choked using carriers. Even in Arabian sea, the areas near Mauriius can be choked using a carrier ship. In Maldives too, carrier can be used to take out enemy assets.

Carriers strength is in controlling open seas without islands whereby carrier acts as a moving island. Controlling areas near enemy land base is not the role of carriers. When it is not possible to control the shores of enemy, at least control the open seas where the enemy must pass using a carrier

 

[Bon Plan]

Did you hear abt Brahmos missiles or Prahar? How come these are supposed to be effective against Chinese carriers only ??
Aircraft carrier is already an after thought.

The evolution, Triremes that would ram into each other.. to -- triremes that can fire each other with catapults and ballistas .... ships that can carry more cannons .... ships that can carry 16th inch guns at least 8 or 9 ..... aircraft carrier....

The evolution has gone on bases of which has better fire power and can hit enemy at a distance, So in carrier vs battle ship scenario, the carrier has advantage due to range, at say range of more than 80 miles the carrier is supreme, but as the range is say 30 kms the probablity of victory goes more in favour of the battleship..

Thus if a ship is heavily armed and can take out the carrier from range well beyond the range of the carrier planes, would you still think its era of carrier?

A Squadrons of planes carrying Brahmos can fire the missiles from around 300 kms from carrier or fire prahar from smaller missile frigates from longer distance and then simply let the missile take down the target, so here you have a weapon with a much longer range than carrier.

Also if the carrier manages to sink the missile boat its acceptable loss, but if the missiles are able to put the carrier out of action, thats era of carrier OFFICIALLY OVER. We have to just wait for another conflict where one has the carrier and other has long range missiles like Brahmos and you will see this to be true.

To find a carrier in the ocean is not so easy. Even with satelittes.
You may have the deadliest missile of the world, if you don't know where fired it, it's useless.
A carrier group is made of SSN, frigates, Hawkeye... that give a protection bubble of some hundred kilometers of radius.
USN continue to produce super carrier (and not much more of smaller one). GB will have two medium carrier. France, China, India....
Facts are not confirming your idea.

 

[smestarz]

A Carrier is always tracked and its impossible to have it "vanish" as it has a huge footprint.
India has two carriers in operation, GB will have, .. France just one at present, China just one and building another..
India 2 and building two more.. for your records

To find a carrier in the ocean is not so easy. Even with satelittes.
You may have the deadliest missile of the world, if you don't know where fired it, it's useless.
A carrier group is made of SSN, frigates, Hawkeye... that give a protection bubble of some hundred kilometers of radius.
USN continue to produce super carrier (and not much more of smaller one). GB will have two medium carrier. France, China, India....
Facts are not confirming your idea.

 

[Kshithij Sharma]

A Carrier is always tracked and its impossible to have it "vanish" as it has a huge footprint.
India has two carriers in operation, GB will have, .. France just one at present, China just one and building another..
India 2 and building two more.. for your records

With today's AEWACS, almost every ship is detectable for hundreds if not thousands of km from shore. In sea, there is very little other than water and hence it is easy to pickup even small signals due to low noise. AEWACS also have ranges of several thousand km and can easily patrol off shore lines and keep a strict vigil. Satellite tracking of carriers are possible only if it is being continually tracked and have an idea about the whereabouts of it at least at one point of time after which you can tail it around. But if you suddenly want to find a carrier without having been tracking it, it is difficult.

Also, mere tracking is not sufficient as sufficient capability must exist for attacking too. So, just by knowing location of carrier, there isn't much one can do. As I have said before, carriers are meant for open sea operations beyond shore lines of enemy. Carrier can never win a war with land base but can cut of every supply route about 500km from shore in open seas

 

[Bon Plan]

A Carrier is always tracked and its impossible to have it "vanish" as it has a huge footprint.
India has two carriers in operation, GB will have, .. France just one at present, China just one and building another..
India 2 and building two more.. for your records

No need of your record on this. I know that perfectly.
No, Carriers are not track at every moment.
Remember the Scuds in the iraki desert.... all spy satelites were observing this small area (small versus an ocean), there was Awacs, JSTARS, a lot of fighters in the sky and they destroyed very few.

 

[Babloo]

Any one has more info on this....
Is this on a Tableaux for Republic Day....... INS Vishal ..... with Rafale M looks and we have AWACS there too !!
Great News if the design is complete... Let's start construction... may be two of them at a time

 

[bonobashi]

Imagine this.... A squadron of su30mki flying off Andaman and Vikky patrolling 500 nm south of it. The strait of Malacca is effectively choked. The Chinese will be left gasping. Without a carrier you can't do this.

And, of course, they will curl up and die. And the rest of the world will go along with this blockade of a vital sea link.

Terrific strategy.