25 April 2017
Liu Kui, of the
Naval Equipment Research Institute of the PLA Navy, said that the
recent decommissioning of INS Viraat, which left India with one
aircraft carrier, had shown that India's long-time strategy to
dominate the Indian Ocean with three aircraft carriers was "falling
flat".
Liu Kui has
dubbed India's aircraft carrier strategy a failure.
He said Indian
Navy's dream of having three aircraft carriers has fallen flat with
decommissioning of INS Viraat.
Also asks China
to expand its own carrier programme as the PLA Navy readies its
aircraft second carrier.
A Chinese
military strategist at a People's Liberation Army Navy think-tank
has dubbed India's aircraft carrier strategy a failure, calling for
China to expand its own carrier programme as the PLA Navy readies
its aircraft second carrier.
Liu Kui, of the
Naval Equipment Research Institute of the PLA Navy, said that the
recent decommissioning of INS Viraat, which left India with one
aircraft carrier, had shown that India's long-time strategy to
dominate the Indian Ocean with three aircraft carriers was "falling
flat".
"The Indian
Navy's dream of having three aircraft carriers has fallen flat
because it overestimated its R&D capability and the country's
overall strength, and undertook an excessively massive strategy that
eventually got stranded," said Liu, in an article published on the
PLA's official website, in Chinese and in English.
"To achieve the
goal of three aircraft carriers, India, while extending the INS
Viraat's service time, invested a lot of money to modify the INS
Vikramaditya and carried on with the INS Vikrant development, but
the seemingly efficient 'three-pronged' approach didn't go as
successfully as expected," he said.
"The INS
Vikramaditya has cost so much money that the new INS Vikrant that
should have been commissioned in 2014 won't be completed until 2018,
and whether India can meet that deadline is still uncertain."
Lessons for
China
He said there
were "lessons" for China from India's experience, and that it should
carry on with its aircraft carrier programme as well as enhance
civilian-military integration to boost capabilities.
His comments
came as Chinese military officials signalled that China's second
aircraft carrier - its first home-grown one after the refitted
Liaoning - would be ready for sea trials by 2019. At the on-going
session of China's National People's Congress or Parliament, which
announced a 7 per cent hike in defence spending, several military
experts have called for a boost to the Navy's funding and to expand
the aircraft carrier programme.
PLA Navy Rear
Admiral Yin Zhuo, who is also a member of parliament, said China
"needs two carrier strike groups in the West Pacific Ocean and two
in the Indian Ocean. So, we need at least five to six aircraft
carriers."
In the article,
the PLA Navy expert, Liu Kui, said that Indian navy strategists had
envisaged "two aircraft carriers in order to 'dominate' the Indian
Ocean and control the Bay of Bengal east of India and the Arabian
Sea" and "a third aircraft carrier as a mobile force to provide
quick aid or sail to other sea areas critical for its interests."
India's
ocean strategy
"However, in
comparison to India's ocean strategy, its aircraft carrier
development hasn't been a plain sailing," he said. "First, India
isn't capable of independent ship R&D and modification. Second,
India's strategic layout isn't consistent with its overall national
strength."
He also said
India had a "carrier complex" and "mistook the deterrence of
aircraft carrier for combat capability". "It is imperative to
develop aircraft carriers, but it cannot be hurried through. Not all
carrier-borne aircraft can be put into combat, but India insisted on
increasing the number of aircraft carriers under such
circumstances."
He concluded
there were lessons for China, starting with providing "continuous
support to the development of aircraft carriers."
Indian Navy
continuously growing in strength
"Although no
large-scale warfare broke out in the Indian Ocean in the past few
decades, the Indian Navy is continuously growing in strength, and
the existence of aircraft carrier especially deters other countries
along the Indian Ocean from violating India's marginal islands. In
peacetime, an aircraft carrier is an effective naval vessel that
displays deterrence and protects regional and world peace."He said
China should also "continue to reinforce its innovation and R&D
capability" rather than, as in India's case, rely on imports, and
also "make steady progress with combat capability as the top
priority" rather than "in haste".
He also called
for further civilian-military integration, which has enabled China
to build a domestic military industrial complex.
"A major
obstacle in India's development of aircraft carriers is the
inadequate overall national strength, which makes it unable to
afford the operation and R&D of three aircraft carriers all at
once," he concluded. "The future war isn't just about the military,
but concerns the whole nation. China should promote and implement
the military-civilian strategy in depth and advance national and
military development in parallel.