India May Lose Aircraft Carrier Edge Over China

China is set to  begin preliminary sea trials of its second aircraft carrier within a month or so, even as it steams ahead with plans to also construct mammoth nuclear-powered ones, signalling its hard-nosed intent to project military power on the high seas in the years ahead.

China’s scorching pace in constructing aircraft carriers confronts India, which has been operating such sea-going airbases or “flat-tops” for over five decades now, with the very real prospect of losing its long-standing edge over its larger neighbour in this arena.

India is currently making do with just one aircraft carrier in the shape of the 44,400-tonne INS Vikramaditya, the refurbished Admiral Gorshkov inducted from Russia for $2.33 billion in November 2013.
Sources say the long-delayed 40,000-tonne indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC-I) or INS Vikrant, being built at Cochin Shipyard, is likely to begin sea trials only by October 2020 now. It will become fully-operational, with its aviation complex and long-range surface-to-air missiles, only by 2023 at the earliest. Sanctioned by the government way back in January 2003, INS Vikrant will now cost Rs 19,341 crore.

To make matters worse, the 65,000-tonne IAC-II (tentatively christened INS Vishal) remains a mere pipe-dream due to politico-bureaucratic apathy despite the Navy first moving the Defence Acquisitions Council for it in May 2015.

“The proposed project to construct IAC-II has gone around in circles, with the defence ministry constituting a three-member expert committee to review the proposal after three detailed studies. But the committee never really got going. It’s likely to be revived soon,” said a source.

The Navy has also ditched its ambition of having nuclear-propulsion for IAC-II for much greater endurance, which will also significantly bring down the overall costs. But the carrier will have CATOBAR (catapult assisted take-off but arrested recovery) configuration to launch fighters as well as heavier aircraft for surveillance, early-warning and electronic warfare from its deck. Till now, India has operated carriers with angled ski-jumps for only fighters to take off under their own power in STOBAR (short take-off but arrested recovery) operations.

“It takes over a decade in India to build a carrier after the government’s approval. But China is constructing them at a furious pace. It eventually wants six carrier strike groups, with at least two of them being nuclear,” said a senior officer.
After inducting its first carrier 65,000-tonne Liaoning in 2012, China will soon begin sea trials of its domestically-built Type-001A carrier, which is slated for induction in 2019. “It’s designed for only STOBAR operations. But their future carriers are likely to have CATOBAR and nuclear-propulsion, and be almost as large as US carriers,” said the officer.
The US has 10 Nimitz-class nuclear-powered super-carriers, each of which is over 100,000-tonne and capable of carrying 80-90 fighters, to project power and unleash strikes around the globe. One of them, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, with its accompanying warships and strike group, recently sailed through the contentious South China Sea to show the flag to China.

(This article by Rajat Pandit was originally published in The Times of India)

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China’s Second Aircraft Carrier

BEIJING: China’s second aircraft carrier is likely to start its first sea trials soon with the development to be presented as a key achievement of President Xi Jinping at the ruling Communist Party’s Congress expected to take place in October.

The “key project” team has completed tasks ahead of schedule, Hu Wenming, the head and Party chief of the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC), the manufacturer of the Type 001A said.

China has one aircraft carrier in operation  now — the ‘Liaoning’, which went into commission in 2012. The Type 001A is the country’s first home-grown aircraft carrier.

The Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Corp (DSIC) where it was built will greet the 19th CPC National Congress by delivering key achievements on a special product in this special time,” DSIC Chairman Liu Zheng was quoted as saying by state-run Global Times today.

The Congress which is held every five years is expected to be held in October here. Xi, 64, who is .. completing his five year tenure as party general secretary, President and head of the Army, is widely believed to get a second term.

As per the practice of the CPC, top leaders will have a ten year tenure.

Liu said all personnel working on the key project led by the CSIC will stick to the directions of Xi to provide world- class naval equipment for a world-leading navy.

The “special time” refers to the 19th Congress, which marks the opening of a new phase of China’s reforms. And the enhancement of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) navy’s combat capabilities is an important part of the country’s military reforms,” Li Jie, a Beijing-based naval expert, told the Daily.

Zhang Ye, a a research fellow at the PLA Naval Research Institute said that if the Type 001A made in China can start its sea trials before the event, which is the last stage prior to turning the warship over to the navy, it would mark a huge step forward in China’s development of a stronger navy.

China has successfully tested the Type 001A’s power system and the carrier will undergo a mooring test in September ahead of schedule, meaning that the ship’s power system is all set.

Zhang said he believed part of the mooring test has already started even during the power test, so the mooring test period could be shorter than expected.

The schedule for the sea trials will depend on how long the mooring test takes, Zhang noted.

The sea trials will include an even more comprehensive performance test, which would cover the propelling and communications systems under different maritime conditions, which would usually take two years, Zhang said. He added the trials would not  be limited to a specific weather condition.

“The Type 001A is an improved version of the Type 001 Liaoning, so the similarity and experience can largely speed things up,” Song Zhongping, a military expert who served in the Rocket (Missile Force) said.

China’s ‘Liaoning’ is a refurbished aircraft carrier built from the hull of a Soviet ship bought from Ukraine in 1998. Regarded as an experimental vessel, it is taking part in battle group exercises in different seas.

The second ship, Type 001A weighs about 70,000 tonnes, is 315 metres long, 75 metres wide and has a cruising speed of 31 knots.

With inputs from PTI