The Indian Navy’s aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya will leave the Karwar naval base on March 23 after being there for 15 months. The carrier, which weighs 45,000 tonnes, will be given to the Indian Navy by March 31. In April 2023, the MiG-29K fighter planes will go into service.
In December 2021, the aircraft carrier was sent to Karwar for a major repair. Tests for air operations will start in April, and various checks of the weapons and surface-to-air missile systems on board will start in March. The warship will be able to carry up to 36 planes.
Aircraft on INS Vikramaditya
The warship can carry up to 36 planes, including 26 MiG-29K fighters and 10 Kamov Ka-31 and Ka-28 helicopters for anti-submarine warfare and early electronic warning. With the INS Vikrant, India will now have two advanced aircraft carriers that can be used. It will join the INS Vikramaditya when its tests at sea on the western seaboard are done.
The new aircraft carrier will be based in the city of Visakhapatnam, which is on the east coast. It will stop the People’s Liberation Army Navy of China from getting bigger and bigger. It is India’s most powerful carrier, and it will go up against the Chinese Navy in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific region with the help of India’s QUAD partners, the United States, Japan, and Australia.
The Indian government will soon decide which planes will be on board Vikrant. The last two candidates are the F-A/18 Super Hornet from Boeing and the Rafael Marine from the French Navy. The decision will be based on the Indian Navy’s suggestion to buy a total of 26 fighter planes. Along with them will be the Twin Engine Deck Based Fighters, which were made by DRDO and HAL for the Indian Navy’s programme to build fighters for the future.
This will make it easier for the Indian Navy and its QUAD partners (the US, Australia, and Japan) to go up against the Chinese PLA Navy in the South China Sea and Indian Ocean. India’s two worst neighbours will be watched by the two aircraft carriers.
Given that the Chinese Navy is expanding its reach from the Malacca Straits to the south of the Indian Ocean, the Indian Navy will strengthen its maritime defence by adding a second nuclear submarine by 2024.
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