Intense tussle for fighter jets on INS Vikrant
US AEROSPACE GIANT BOEING AND FRENCH MAJOR DASSAULT AVIATION OFFER FRONTLINE JETS FOR AIRCRAFT CARRIER
The intense competition between US aerospace giant Boeing and French major Dassault Aviation to deck their fighter jets on India’s first indigenously designed and built aircraft carrier INS Vikrant seems to have heated up.
On Sunday, French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu began his first official visit to India by boarding INS Vikrant in Kochi to “highlight the importance” of Indo-French naval cooperation for security and stability in the Indo-Pacific.
France is offering Dassault Aviation’s Rafale maritime fighter for carrier operations on the largest ship ever built in the maritime history of India.
Rafale-M carrier-borne fighters also currently operate from the flight deck of the nuclearpowered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, the flagship of the French Navy Marine Nationale.
‘incredibly impressed’
On the other hand, Washington is pitching Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet Block III to the Indian Navy calling it as the most advanced, combat-proven, multi-role frontline naval fighter.
Only last week, spotlighting that the US-India defence partnership remains a pillar of a free and open Indo-Pacific region, US Secretary of Navy Carlos Del Toro
landed in Kochi to visit the Indian Navy’s Southern Naval Command and tour the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC).
Having got “incredibly impressed” with the state-of-theart aircraft carrier, the top US official said that it enables India to join the elite group of five nations to have built an aircraft carrier and demonstrates a continued commitment to improve sea control capabilities.
“I am looking forward to our US Navy ships operating with Vikrant in the foreseeable future where we will we continue to leverage a foundation of shared values and mutual interests in order to maintain the international norms that ensure not only Indian and US national security, but our economic security,” he said in a statement issued after returning home.
INS Vikrant has been built
with high degree of automation for machinery operation, ship navigation and survivability, and has been designed to accommodate an assortment of fixed wing and rotary aircraft.
‘Arrester wires’
The warship would be capable of operating air wing consisting of 30 aircraft comprising of MIG-29K fighter jets, Kamov-31, MH-60R multi-role helicopters, in addition to indigenously manufactured Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH) and Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) (Navy).
Using a novel aircraft operation mode known as STOBAR (Short Take-Off but Arrested Landing), the IAC is equipped with a skijump for launching aircraft, and a set of ‘arrester wires’ for their recovery onboard.
According to Boeing, designed from its inception for carrier operations, the Super Hornet can operate from Indian Navy aircraft carriers and meets STOBAR performance requirements.
Meanwhile, showcasing its ability to carry out operations from the Indian aircraft carriers, Dassault Aviation’s Rafale-M had flown from the Shore-based Test Facility (SBTF) at Goa’s Hansa naval air station, in January earlier this year.