The Navy's quest for carrier-borne aircraft

Aircraft carriers have an important role to play in peacetime as well as during hostilities. They are the most visible and effective symbol of the country’s maritime power

- Commodore Anil Jai Singh, IN Retd). Vice President, Indian Maritime Foundation

AS INS Vikrant, the country's second aircraft carrier and the first one built indigenously, is going through the paces of integrating with Fleet operations, one of the major constraints is the limited availability of aircraft in the Indian Navy's inventory. Since an aircraft carrier is only as good as the aircraft it carries, this limitation needs urgent attention.

Vikrant was designed to embark the existing Russian MiG 29K aircraft and the Tejas Mk 2, the naval version of the indigenously developed light combat aircraft (LCA). However, the Tejas Mk 2 was considered unsuitable for aircraft carrier operations for various reasons.

This has left the Navy with only 40-odd MiG 29Ks as the only carrier-borne fighter in its inventory, which are clearly inadequate in numbers to equip two fully operational aircraft carriers. The development of a Twin Engine Deckbased Fighter (TEDBF) has begun and is keenly awaited as a critical indigenous capability, but the earliest a prototype can be expected is around 2026 and an operational version not earlier than 2032. To address this shortfall, the Navy has projected a requirement for 26 imported fighter jets as an 'interim' measure with the US F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet and the French Rafale M-1 in the fray. Of these one will be selected, a decision that is likely to be taken soon.