India’s Second Aircraft Carrier begins Sea Trials as India Sending a Naval Task Force to South China Sea to Counter China

NEW DELHI, Ag 4: The first indigenously designed and built aircraft carrier of India, which will be named INS Vikrant once commissioned, on Wednesday began its sea trials off the coast of Kochi. The landmark achievement will put India in the list of only a few countries that have the capacity to manufacture aircraft carriers.

Calling it a “proud and historic day for India,” the Navy in a statement said, “Reincarnated Vikrant (IAC) sailed for her maiden sea trials today (Wednesday), in the 50th year of her illustrious predecessor’s key role in victory in the 1971 war.”

The new aircraft carrier began its trials even as India, in a bid to counter China, is sending a naval task force to the South China Sea this month to expand security ties with friendly countries signalling its intent to play a bigger role in the regional efforts to counter China, official sources said on Wednesday.

The Indian military has been traditionally wary of antagonising China but the mood has hardened following the clashes which took place between Indian and Chinese soldiers in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh last year. The government has since drawn closer to the United States in efforts to push back China.

Four ships including a guided missile destroyer and a missile frigate will be deployed for a two-month period to south-east Asia, the South China Sea and the western Pacific, the navy said in a statement.

“The deployment of the Indian Navy ships seeks to underscore the operational reach, peaceful presence and solidarity with friendly countries towards ensuring good order in the maritime domain…” the navy said.

The South China Sea has become one of many flashpoints in the testy relationship between China and the United States, with Washington rejecting what it calls unlawful territorial claims by Beijing in the resource-rich waters.

In June, a U.S. aircraft carrier group led by the USS Ronald Reagan entered the South China Sea as part of a routine mission and a British carrier group is due to undertake exercises in the Philippine Sea this month. As part of their deployment, the Indian ships will take part in annual joint war drills involving the United States, Japan and Australia off the coast of Guam, the navy said.

The four countries make up the Quad, an informal group, that U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is promoting as a way to counter an assertive China. “These maritime initiatives enhance synergy and coordination between the Indian Navy and friendly countries, based on common maritime interests and commitment towards Freedom of Navigation at sea,” the Indian navy said. China has in the past criticised multilateral military manoeuvres as an attempt to destabilize the region.

About the INS Vikrant, the Indian navy dubbed the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) as the “largest and most complex warship ever to be designed and built in India.” The achievement, it said, is a proud and historical moment in “our quest for Atmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India initiatives.”

The keep of the 40,000-tonne warship was laid in February 2009 and was floated out at the Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL), which has built it, in December 2011. The basin trials were completed in November 2020. The project cost nearly Rs 23,000 crore.

In June, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had visited CSL to review the progress of the project.

According to the Navy, the IAC-1 (as it will be called till commissioned) will operate MiG-29K fighter aircraft, Kamov-31 Air Early Warning Helicopters, the soon-to-be-inducted MH-60R multi-role helicopter and the indigenously-manufactured Advanced Light Helicopters.

Expected to be commissioned by August 2022, INS Vikrant will become India’s second aircraft carrier in service. At the moment India’s sole aircraft carrier is INS Vikramaditya, which is a Russian-origin vessel.

With the second carrier to be commissioned soon, the Navy is on the search for 36 multi-role fighter jets that will cater for both IAC-1 and INS Vikramaditya.

Even as the IAC-1 project is finally close to its conclusion, the Navy has been demanding that the work for a third 65,000-tonne aircraft carrier should begin soon. However, the government is still unconvinced of its need.

According to the Navy, a third carrier is an operational necessity. On Navy Day, the force’s Chief Admiral, Karambir Singh, had said the Navy does not want to be a force “tethered to the shore” and “air power at sea is absolutely required.”

“The Navy is all about reach and sustenance. If you, as a nation, that is aspirational…you will have to go outwards, seek the world, you will have to move out…And for that you require air power and you require it at longer ranges…aircraft carrier is absolutely necessary,” he had said.

However Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat had said on more than one occasion that aircraft carriers can be high-value targets for the enemies and islands of Laskhadweep and Andaman & Nicobar can be developed as “unsinkable” aircraft carriers.

However, the Navy has been going ahead with its push for the third carrier, with senior sources saying that there needs to be a change in the mindset for the government to be convinced.

China, which has two serving aircraft carriers, is building a third, and is expected to have five carriers by the end of the decade.

(Manas Dasgupta)