India Must Aim For Six Carrier Battle Groups
China has been constructing aircraft carriers at a fast pace with a projected plan to operate 10 carriers by 2050. At present their third and most advanced aircraft carrier is being built. The first carrier, at the most a brown water Carrier, though has started operating, providing the PLAN with some valuable experience. Liaoning, a refurbished and resurrected Ship was commissioned in 2012 and second, Shandong, was ready in 2019.
So India has no other option but to start planning for six battle carrier groups. There should be a Battle Carrier Group operating under each of the three Naval Commands. The fourth one will be for the Andaman & Nicobar Command, the fifth one for manning the Western Gate of the Indian Ocean ie seas around Mauritius and the sixth one for manning the Eastern Gate ie seas off Vietnam Coast.
To ramp up the country’s security ring in the Indian Ocean in the backdrop of worrisome Chinese activities is a must. India should also utilise its island territories and use the peninsular mainland territory to its optimum but these can only be add on.
Any one saying that Indian Navy should depend only on these “ unsinkable air raft carriers “ needs to revisit history, especially the Naval history of the Indian Ocean Region. One needs to remember that only six small ships of the Portuguese demolished the mighty Zamorin of Calicut and started the enslavement of India in true sense for the first time. It ended only in 1961 when Portuguese were Vanquished.
The Chinese entry into the Indian Ocean with deployment of its aircraft carrier in the future is inevitable. Presently China has other areas which need focus. Howe er after consolidating in South China sea, their fourth carrier battle group will start making voyages into the Indian Ocean Region. Initially it will be just passages to show flag and visits to friendly countries.
So the Indian Navy has been rightly pitching for the third aircraft carrier and must get it. Thereafter the next three Carriers must be Nuclear powered ones above 70000 tons.
