Why INS Vikrant is a stunning feat and what India should do next

The commissioning of India’s first indigenously designed and built aircraft carrier, the INS Vikrant, on Friday (Sep 2) in Kochi by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is significant punctuation in India’s pursuit of self-reliance, aka aatma nirbharta in the military domain. With this demonstration of design and warship-building competence, India joins a select band of five nations that are currently invested in designing and building aircraft carriers. The other five nations are the US, UK, France, Russia and China.

At 43,000 tonne, the Vikrant is the largest warship built in India and the Indian Navy’s design bureau and the Cochin Shipyard are to be commended for this achievement – more so when the Covid had led to a global and national slowdown in every aspect of collective activity. It is a matter of considerable satisfaction that the first phase of the Vikrant – designing and making the hull float — was achieved with almost 90 per cent of indigenous effort that also included the contribution of 550 small and medium enterprises from the Indian private sector.

Also read: PM Modi commissions indigenously built aircraft carrier INS Vikrant

Time-critical challenge

However, other critical components of the carrier – such as the propulsion package and the entire gamut of radars and surveillance equipment and the aviation component – are largely imported and this is a long-term challenge for India: attaining the desired degree of self-reliance in making a warship move and acquiring its optimum fighting capability.

The timelines for the Vikrant merit notice and this is another area where higher levels of productivity and efficiency would be called for. The keel for the Vikrant was laid in 2009 and it has taken 13 years for the carrier to be commissioned. This is well below the accepted global timelines – which is about four to five years.

The most serious and time-critical challenge is that of embarking the fighter aircraft on the INS Vikrant to make it a credible platform. As of now, the only naval fighter is the Russian origin MIG 29 K which is operating from the INS Vikramaditya. However, the performance of this mid-1980s vintage fighter (which was originally designed as a land-based aircraft) has been below par and the Navy will need to acquire a more modern and carrier-compatible fighter aircraft. The options have been narrowed down to the French Rafale and the US F 18. But given the track record of Indian decision-making for such big-ticket inventory acquisition, it appears unlikely that the INS Vikrant will be enabled swiftly. In the interim, the professional assessment is that the new carrier will be relatively ‘toothless’.

The ultimate objective of aatma nirbharta for India will be to embark on an indigenously designed and manufactured fighter aircraft on the carrier and the expectation is that the LCA/Tejas will fit the bill. However, on current evidence, this is likely to take many more years given India’s modest aviation design and manufacturing eco-system and a decade-plus may not be improbable. The Vikrant has cost the nation almost Rs 20,000 crore and acquiring new aircraft could be of the same order and thus the investment in the carrier is not insignificant.

Perennial debate

This quantum of investment (approx. US $6 billion) has led to a perennial debate — whether a nation like India should pursue the carrier acquisition path or move to a different mix of Naval platforms which prioritise submarine and smaller destroyers. The aircraft carrier represents a very flexible and credible index of trans-border military capability and, historically, most major nations that have the strategic acumen and exchequer support have acquired them.

For the record, India was the first developing nation to acquire a carrier – the erstwhile INS Vikrant in 1961 from the UK – and China is the most recent entrant to this exclusive grouping of carrier-capable nations. The PLA navy commissioned its first carrier, the Liaoning (ex-Ukraine), in September 2012, and in the last decade, Beijing has added one more carrier – the 60,000-tonne Shandong in 2019.  A third carrier, the 80,000-tonne Fujian has been launched and is now undergoing sea trials and is expected to be commissioned in 2023.

India’s abiding challenge is to acquire and project the appropriate degree of trans-border military power in the Indian Ocean to deter any adventurism or suasion detrimental to its core national interests. The Navy is the first instrument of choice, but for reasons related to a diffident strategic culture that is obstinately focused on land borders and the historical experience with China (October 1962), Delhi has shied away from envisioning a viable long-term maritime strategy despite its extraordinarily favourable geography and proven pedigree as a naval power. The contrast with China is striking.

The commissioning of the Vikrant on Friday was an appropriate occasion perhaps for Prime Minister Modi to dwell on these strands of national security in an objective and informed manner – noting the challenges and constraints, but also providing the road-map for India’s maritime consolidation. This would have been a logical extension for Modi to realize his vision that encouraged him to unveil the concept of SAGAR (security and growth for all in the Indian Ocean region) in 2015, in his first term in office.

PM’s speech more electoral

However, PM Modi’s Kochi speech was more electoral in its tone and tenor and to that extent India’s untapped maritime potential and aspirations remain blurred. With a modest outlay of under 15 per cent of the overall defence budget, the Navy is hobbled by fiscal constraints even as the Indo-Pacific as a strategic theatre is becoming more animated. Currently, the Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean is increasing visibly and the need for Delhi to arrive at a calibrated national consensus on the most desirable contour and content of India’s trans-border military capabilities is urgent.

Also read: All you need to know about feature-packed INS Vikrant

An early decision to ensure that the Vikrant is not ‘toothless’ and clarity about the next indigenous carrier – the Vishal — and the kind of air power it will have on board would signal India’s resolve to remain relevant in the Indian Ocean and beyond, in the decades ahead.

(Commodore (Retd) C Uday Bhaskar is Director of the Society for Policy Studies (SPS), an independent think-tank based in New Delhi)

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