America's master plan to turn India into an aircraft carrier superpower
Date
2/5/2016 11:05:00 PM
(MENAFN- Asia Times) Artist conception of INS Vishal India’s first nuke aircraft carrier.
A report from Reuters notes that Washington and New Delhi are discussing options for the joint development of an aircraft carrier for India. In a recent visit to India Chief of U.S. Naval Operations John Richardson remarked that 'we are making very good progress I am very pleased with the progress to date and optimistic we can do more in the future. That’s on a very solid track.'
Richardson according to the Reutersreport revealed that one of the crown jewels of American carrier technologyhighly coveted electromagnetic launch technology that allows heavier planes to take off from the carrier flight deckwas part of the talks. Richardson offered that 'all of those things are on the table there are possibilities it's a matter of pacing it’s very new technology for us.”
Considering how difficult it is to build an aircraft carrierfor example China began in-depth first-hand analysis of scraped aircraft carriers it purchased back in 1985 taking until 2012 to commission a small rebuilt ex-Soviet carrierthis is nothing short of a coup for India. Up until this point New Delhi's best options were shall we say less than desirable Russian technology. As frequent National Interest contributor Kyle Mizokami points out:
'In the early 2000s India faced a dilemma. The Indian navy's only carrier INS Viraat was set to retire in 2007. . . India's options were limited. The only countries building carriers at the timethe United States France and Italywere building ships too big for India's checkbook. In 2004 India and Russia struck a deal in which India would receive Admiral Gorshkov. The ship herself would be free but India would pay $974 million dollars to Russia to upgrade her.
'It was an ambitious project. At 44500 tons Admiral Gorshkov was a huge ship. Already more than a decade old she had spent eight years languishing in mothballs. Indifference and Russia's harsh winters are unkind to idle ships.'
From here well things took an interesting turn:
'In 2007 just a year before delivery it became clear that Russia's Sevmash shipyard couldn't meet the ambitious deadline. Even worse the yard demanded more than twice as much money$2.9 billion in totalto complete the job. Read more
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