Thread: After Army, Navy too wants new air wing

NEW DELHI: After the Army's plan to build its own "tactical" air force left IAF fuming, Navy too is going full steam ahead to bolster its ageing air power.

The Navy is in the hunt for more supersonic fighters, reconnaissance aircraft, multi-role and anti-submarine warfare helicopters, UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) and AJTs (advanced jet trainers) to emerge as "a true three-dimensional blue-water force".

"IAF will continue to play the strategic role but both Navy and Army want to strengthen their aviation wings. Moreover, unlike Army, we have long been in the business of operating fighters from aircraft carriers," said a senior Navy officer.

The force, after all, wants to operate two "carrier battle groups" centred around two aircraft carriers, with their own complements of fighters and helicopters, to project power in the Indian Ocean and beyond in the next five to seven years.

First, with the delivery of 16 MiG-29Ks from Russia slated to begin from October, plans are afoot to go in for another 30-36 of these fighters. The MiG-29Ks will be supplemented by the naval variant of the indigenous Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), the first prototype of which will take to the skies by end-2008.

The 16 MiG-29Ks were part of the original $1.5-billion deal signed in 2004 for Admiral Gorshkov, now being renegotiated after Russia demanded another $1.2 billion for refit of the 44,570-tonne aircraft carrier.

"Both Gorshkov and the indigenous aircraft carrier being built at Cochin Shipyard will require MiG-29K squadrons. The 37,500-tonne IAC, for instance, is designed to carry 12 MiG-29Ks, eight LCA and 10 helicopters," said an officer.

Along with this, the Rs 476-crore upgrade of the remaining 10 Sea Harrier jump-jets, which operate from India's solitary carrier INS Viraat, is also currently underway.





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