China’s latest aircraft carrier the Fujian has begun sea trials. The Type 003 carrier with a displacement of 80,000 tons when fully loaded is supposed to be the most advanced Chinese to be put to sea and will be the second carrier after the U.S. Navy’s Gerard R Ford to feature the advanced Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) which would give the ship to launch heavier aircraft from its flight deck.
The aircraft carriers currently in service with both India and China employ ski-jumps which limit the type of aircraft that can be deployed from the ships. Besides fighters and helicopters these ships will also carry Airborne Early Warning And Control (AEW&C) aircraft giving the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) a tremendous advantage. The Chinese have even set their eyes on a much bigger Type 004 carrier, which is expected to have greater tonnage than America’s latest Ford class, and is likely to be propelled by nuclear powered.
Aircraft carriers are seen as the biggest tools of power projection far and beyond. Considering the fact the Chinese want to project influence in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and that an aircraft carrier will have very limited use if and when China invades Taiwan and to assert itself in the South China Sea, it is expected that the Xi may deploy carrier battle groups in the IOR. This raises the question about India’s aircraft carriers.
China already boasts of having the largest navy in the world and India is trying to play catch-up. In terms of aircraft carriers India currently operates two such ships and aims to have at least three in its fleet as per the Maritime Capability Perspective Plan (MCCP). But the aircraft carriers in our fleet are more comparable to the ships currently in service with the PLAN in terms of number and type of aircrafts carried.
The Indian Navy currently plans to have a ship similar to its indigenously built INS Vikrant, a 45,000-ton displacement vessel that can carry a total of 36 fighters and helicopters. But the Navy is likely to get as a replacement for the INS Vikramaditya, the aptly named 65,000 ton displacement INS Vishal. The new ship, although conventionally powered, will have the EMALS system to take on heavier fighters, but the navy is silent about the use of AEW&C platforms for the new ship.
The navy has still not given a timeline for the induction of INS Vishal, but with China making huge strides in the game, it only seems that the looming disparity will only grow.
Dhruv Yadav
