Asia-Pacific** Longyang
Recently, an anonymous Indian source revealed to Bloomberg News that the Procurement Committee of the Indian Ministry of Defense is conducting internal discussions and plans to start designing and building India's second domestically produced aircraft carrier, and the Procurement Committee also plans to adopt a budget containing 97 India's domestic Tejas fighters and 156 India's domestic light armed forces.
At the same time, India's ** "Times of India" also disclosed in a recent report that India's planned second domestically produced aircraft carrier will be a medium-sized aircraft carrier with a displacement of about 4At about 50,000 tons, slightly higher than India's first domestically built aircraft carrier, the Vikrant, which was designed to cost about $4.8 billion. It is planned to carry 28 fighter jets and supporting armed forces, of which the main model may be the carrier-based version of the French Rafale fighter, while the carrier-based version of India's domestically produced Tejas fighter will be mainly deployed on the Vikrant.
India, perhaps under the influence of the former British colonizers, has long dreamed of a great power sea power. Because India is surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Indian Ocean's communication through the Strait of Malacca and the Sunda Islands has become the sea power in India's eyes, and the Indians believe that the aircraft carrier fleet in their hands must have the ability to control the Strait of Malacca. At present, India has a slightly old Vikramaditya purchased from the United Kingdom, as well as a domestic Vikrant, if the planned aircraft carrier is successfully completed, India will have three aircraft carrier battle groups, although it is still seriously insufficient in the combination of aircraft carrier supporting ships, but considering that there are no other competitors in the Indian Ocean, the Indian Navy still has a good regional response capability.
On the other hand, India has long wanted to rely on its so-called powerful navy to overtake China and become the most influential power in the Asia-Pacific region. But let's take a look, we are also just starting to build aircraft carriers, what is the progress of our country? The Liaoning, which was remodeled from the aircraft carrier of the former Soviet Navy, has become the cradle of naval aviation carrier-based pilots, and the Liaoning has appeared in hot spots many times and has become a symbol of China's maintenance of sea power. The first domestic aircraft carrier Shandong, the increasingly lively flight deck also shows the growth of China's naval aircraft carrier experience at any time. Not long ago, the electromagnetic catapult of the Fujian has just completed the "trolley catapult" experiment, which proves that the functions of the three electronic catapults have been completed, and it is expected that the formal sea trial will be carried out soon.
India has a fairly rich industrial base and a high-end talent and technical reserve that other countries covet, but due to various reasons, it is difficult for India to show the sharpness that a regional and even global power should have. On the road to sea power, we in China have finally realized some true meaning after a hundred years of humiliation, and for India, the three aircraft carriers that have been patched up can hardly be called real stable sea power, and India's road to becoming a great power still has a long way to go.
APD News).