<p>India would have its second operational aircraft carrier to patrol the high seas for countering the Chinese muscle-flexing by 2022 only, Navy Chief Admiral Karambir Singh said on Monday.</p>.<p>The Navy would take the delivery of the indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC-1) – currently under construction at Cochin shipyard - by March 2021 following which there would be aviation trials for a year.</p>.<p>“By 2022, we expect to have the indigenous aircraft carrier-1 (to be named INS Vikrant) fully operational. It would operate the MiG-29K fighter jets from its deck,” he said here at a press conference ahead of the Navy Day.</p>.<p>Admiral Singh pointed out that he would once again pitch for a third aircraft carrier (IAC-2), which would be a 65,000 tonnes ship with electric propulsion.</p>.<p>For a long time, Indian Navy harboured plans to operate three aircraft carriers but an earlier proposal to construct the IAC-2 lost steam in the absence of financial support from the government as the Defence Ministry struggled to find out resources for capital acquisition in the face of ballooning salary bills.</p>.<p>Making matters worse from an operational standpoint, the IAC-1 too is past its original delivery schedule leaving India with its solitary aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya.</p>.<p>This happens at a time when China rapidly expands its naval strength with one operational and two under-construction aircraft carriers. The communist country plans to have half-a-dozen aircraft carrier by 2030.</p>.<p>The new IAC-1 time frame is marginally better than the Cochin Shipyard Limited's plea to fix 2023 as a “realistic delivery schedule”, but a slip nevertheless from the Navy's earlier plan of having the ship by October 2020.</p>.<p>IAC-1's original completion schedule was December 2010, which was tweaked to December 2018 later, but the CSL was nowhere close to meet even the modified deadline.</p>.<p>The time overrun resulted in a six-time jump in the cost – from Rs 3,261 crore (estimated in 2002) to Rs 19,341 crore (March 2014). Furthermore, almost one-third of the operational life of the Mig-29K jets would be over by the time Vikrant is inducted as the aircraft was delivered much ahead of the IAC.</p>.<p>Admiral Singh said Indian Navy currently operates 130 odd ships but plans to operate 175 ships by 2021-22 as 48 ships and submarines are under construction.</p>.<p>On operating an indigenous deck-based combat jet, Admiral Singh said that the lessons learnt from the LCA-Navy project would be ploughed back in developing a twin-engine naval fighter by 2026.</p>
<p>India would have its second operational aircraft carrier to patrol the high seas for countering the Chinese muscle-flexing by 2022 only, Navy Chief Admiral Karambir Singh said on Monday.</p>.<p>The Navy would take the delivery of the indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC-1) – currently under construction at Cochin shipyard - by March 2021 following which there would be aviation trials for a year.</p>.<p>“By 2022, we expect to have the indigenous aircraft carrier-1 (to be named INS Vikrant) fully operational. It would operate the MiG-29K fighter jets from its deck,” he said here at a press conference ahead of the Navy Day.</p>.<p>Admiral Singh pointed out that he would once again pitch for a third aircraft carrier (IAC-2), which would be a 65,000 tonnes ship with electric propulsion.</p>.<p>For a long time, Indian Navy harboured plans to operate three aircraft carriers but an earlier proposal to construct the IAC-2 lost steam in the absence of financial support from the government as the Defence Ministry struggled to find out resources for capital acquisition in the face of ballooning salary bills.</p>.<p>Making matters worse from an operational standpoint, the IAC-1 too is past its original delivery schedule leaving India with its solitary aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya.</p>.<p>This happens at a time when China rapidly expands its naval strength with one operational and two under-construction aircraft carriers. The communist country plans to have half-a-dozen aircraft carrier by 2030.</p>.<p>The new IAC-1 time frame is marginally better than the Cochin Shipyard Limited's plea to fix 2023 as a “realistic delivery schedule”, but a slip nevertheless from the Navy's earlier plan of having the ship by October 2020.</p>.<p>IAC-1's original completion schedule was December 2010, which was tweaked to December 2018 later, but the CSL was nowhere close to meet even the modified deadline.</p>.<p>The time overrun resulted in a six-time jump in the cost – from Rs 3,261 crore (estimated in 2002) to Rs 19,341 crore (March 2014). Furthermore, almost one-third of the operational life of the Mig-29K jets would be over by the time Vikrant is inducted as the aircraft was delivered much ahead of the IAC.</p>.<p>Admiral Singh said Indian Navy currently operates 130 odd ships but plans to operate 175 ships by 2021-22 as 48 ships and submarines are under construction.</p>.<p>On operating an indigenous deck-based combat jet, Admiral Singh said that the lessons learnt from the LCA-Navy project would be ploughed back in developing a twin-engine naval fighter by 2026.</p>
