Aircraft Carriers II (Closed to posting)

The Indian Virkamaditya is also nearing completion. She completed morring trials and should be on her initial sea trials in September or October.

She already is getting her airwing workled up. The Russians have deliverd the first 11 Mig-29Ks and the Indians are already training with them. Five more will be delivered this year, and then in 2012, the Russians will start delivering the next batch of 29. Altogether they will have 45 of them fairly quickly.

I believe the Indians, with their prior carrier experience, and with their aircraft already delivered, will commission and operate that airwiong off of the Virkamaditya before the PLAN get the J-15 wing worked up and operational on the former Varyag...though I believe the PLAN may commission the former Varyag first.

It will be very interesting to see China and India in essence following very similar paths to their aircraft carrier ambitions...ie. both refitting a former RussianCarrier followed in quick order by two of their own indegenous built carriers.

Here are two of the Indian Mig-29Ks flying:


And here's an artist conception of the Vikramaditya at sea with a Delhi DDG escort.

my big surprise is that Indian do not turn to US for technical assistant. in fact,there are report that US willing turn decommissioned Forrestal class CV to India.

challenge said:

my big surprise is that Indian do not turn to US for technical assistance. in fact,there are report that US willing turn decommissioned Forrestal class CV to India.

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That's all they are is reports challenge. All Forrestal class CVs have been stricken from the Navy list and are slated for disposal.

How did this report start?

Some years ago the Kitty Hawk was in port in India. The CO of the Kitty Hawk was asked what will happen to the Kitty Hawk once it was taken out of commission. ..He replied and I paraphrase.. "It would be nice if we could give it to one of our friends" And with that simple statement the rumors started to fly.

As for the Indians not asking for the US help... they already know how to operate a CV. Did you know they purchased E-2D Hawkeyes for their CV?? For the full story follow the link.

The US government has cleared yet another high technology system for India, the "futuristic" shipboard Hawkeye E-2D aircraft for Airborne Early Warning (AEW) and battle management. The clearance has been described by diplomatic sources as a fallout of the "successful" visit of Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton and the signing of the End User Monitoring Agreement (EUMA) of military equipment being supplied or sold by the US to India.

Like the Boeing P-8I Maritime Multi-mission Aircraft (MMA), of which the Indian Navy has already ordered eight aircraft, the Hawkeye E-2D is the very latest and is yet to be delivered to the US Navy.

India is the second country after the UAE to be cleared by the US State and Defense Departments for sale of this sophisticated system. The US Navy has sanctioned $432 million for trials of the aircraft, currently underway at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland. The Naval Systems Command (NAVAIR) based there provides engineering and testing support for new naval systems and weapons.

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Video link to the Kitty Hawk in India in 2007..The CO makes his statement in this video,,,

bd popeye said:

That's all they are is reports challenge. All Forrestal class CVs have been stricken from the Navy list and are slated for disposal.

How did this report start?

Some years ago the Kitty Hawk was in port in India. The CO of the Kitty Hawk was asked what will happen to the Kitty Hawk once it was taken out of commission. ..He replied and I paraphrase.. "It would be nice if we could give it to one of our friends" And with that simple statement the rumors started to fly.

As for the Indians not asking for the US help... they already know how to operate a CV. Did you know they purchased E-2D Hawkeyes for their CV?? For the full story follow the link.

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Yes we did. But until they get some cats on those two new ones they are building, which at this time as far as I know are still slated to not have cats, they will operate the Hawkeyes from land bases in support of their carriers out to sea.

I am not sure of the hangar size on the new Vikrant or the 2nd indegenus carrier...but I amd almost certain a Hawkeye will not fit on the Virkamaditya pictured above.

I am still waiting for the natural...a E-22 AEW derivative of the OSprey. There would be takes for that from all around the world.

Jeff Head said:

I am still waiting for the natural...a E-22 AEW derivative of the OSprey. There would be takes for that from all around the world.

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E-22 would be Nice with a capital N.
with F-35B all the min-flattops (canberra class and their cousines) would acquire nearly the same set of airpower in a nice little neat package
(3xe-22, 12 F35B) as a full size carrier. certainly can control a sizable swath of ocean.

bd popeye said:

Video link to the Kitty Hawk in India in 2007..The CO makes his statement in this video,,,

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

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Yep...that statement has kept rumors alived for a long time.

Here's something that is not rumor.

The USS Gerald R. Ford construction is continuing to progress.

Here's the latest photo showing her 50% structurally complete at Newport News

i.e. said:

E-22 would be Nice with a capital N.
with F-35B all the min-flattops (canberra class and their cousines) would acquire nearly the same set of airpower in a nice little neat package
(3xe-22, 12 F35B) as a full size carrier. certainly can control a sizable swath of ocean.

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Only if no larger carrier is near to interfere with them.
I think China will go to smaller flattops, although perhaps not as small as the Indian ones. At a later stage they may develop tricat carriers because for a given ship size these need less power and have a larger flight deck.

delft said:

Only if no larger carrier is near to interfere with them.
I think China will go to smaller flattops, although perhaps not as small as the Indian ones. At a later stage they may develop tricat carriers because for a given ship size these need less power and have a larger flight deck.

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I can't see them going anything substantially smaller than what the varyag currently displaces. Does the QE class count as small?

Bltizo said:

I can't see them going anything substantially smaller than what the varyag currently displaces. Does the QE class count as small?

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Re the size of the QE class, as my Dad likes to say, I wouldn't want to drop it on my foot! The QEs are in the big league without a doubt. If you want to operate aircraft that can only land on with the help of a tailhook and arrestor wires, then ship size has to increase substantially over STOVL carrier size. It's an unavoidable fact of life. You can argue over what the minimum size conventional carrier might be (fo my money, nothing noticeably less than 30,000 tonnes is worth bothering with) but as ship steel is relatively cheap and the air it surrounds is free, the question arises as to why would you want to handicap your notional carrie by making it smaller and less efficient? If cost is your driving factor. you can make much more substantial savings elsewhere. The radar suite of a modern carrier costs more than the ship steel (including it's manufacture!) so to save costs on construction you could for example reduce the radars andother electronics fitted to the level of simple navigation radars and comms whilst leaving space and weight for their later installation. The carrier would have to rely on it's escorts for it's first few years but could than be upgraded with a full suite at it's first refit. Saved a fortune on the original build cost that way, and not compromised the Primary purpose of the ship, ie to operate aircraft.