Indian Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
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Now THAT is a great picture!More images from the PM's visit (hope I'm not spamming the thread)
Not spamming at all, viv. We like new pictures of military items related to the various countries, particularly naval items, here on SD.
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Blackstone
Brigadier
Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi on the deck of INS Vikramaditya, in Goa
Arrester wire at shore based test facility in INS Hansa that trains MiG-29 pilots for Vikramaditya
Is it me or does the Vikramaditya look less squared away than the Liaoning? Maybe she's done more deployments? I'm not knocking the IN, it's a professional and powerful force, with much more deck aviation capacity and experience than the PLAN. But the Vikramaditya is supposed to be new, in fact newer than the Liaoning, but the pictures suggest the reverse.
The Vikramaditya, to me, looks fine.
She is an older ship, and went to sea for nine years...which included a boiler room explosion and repair in 1994. So she had a lot more miles and wear on her before she was refurbished. When they did refurbish her, they were refurbing older equipment to begin with. They have added some new equipment, but the basic set is just older. She's a 1970s design. She was launched the Baku in 1982, and later was renamed the Gorshkov.
The Liaoning was launched the Varyag in 1988 and is a 1980s design that was laid up after launch, but never completed and had no sea miles on her. She included newer equipment, and was bigger too.
So, when you compare the two, you have to take these things into consideration.
The Vilkramaditya looks older than the Liaoning...becuase she is...even though her refit was completed later than the Liaoning.
The key thing is the effectiveness of their respective airwings and their operational capabilities. That is yet to really be determined for either.
The Vikramaditya is smaller, with an airwing of 20-24 Mig-29Ks. The Liaoning is larger with an airwing of 24 J-15s. The Indians have a longer history of operating carriers.
The Chinese are rapidly expanding and successfully launching and deploying new technologies of their own, even if the original base of thier Liaoning was Russian...they took it and performed the entire refit themselves. And their J-15 aircraft are their own indegenous builds.
The Indians are much more slowly developing their own indegenous capabilites and were completely reliant on Russian to build both the carrier Vikramaditya and the Mig-29K aircraft.
On the other hand, the Indians have already launched the hull of their own indegenous carrier and are outfitting it.
So it is an interesting comparison.
I believe the Indians are squared away...but I believe the Chinese base is growing and progressing faster than the Indians. Both are going to have to have a lot of respect for each others carrier groups though. Both are capable enough to be a real threat to the other in the event of them ever opposing one another in that fashion. Let's hope that does not happen.
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You simply have to give the Indians credit.
They are moving along very rapidly. I see seven aircraft lined up on deck in one part of the recent video...and you can see six in the hanger in another part. They are probably operating 10-12 Mig-29Ks off of the Vikramaditya now.
Some good photos of their air ops:
They are moving along very rapidly. I see seven aircraft lined up on deck in one part of the recent video...and you can see six in the hanger in another part. They are probably operating 10-12 Mig-29Ks off of the Vikramaditya now.
Some good photos of their air ops:
Another GREAT video of the Vikramaditya and flight operations...including some good video of the Viraat and her flight operations. Also some night ops at about 8:20 of the video.
This is good stuff for the Indian Navy and the money shots are the video with a deck full of Mig-29Ks aboard. They are spotting five forward and seven aft of the island.
[video=youtube;C2Qx8uYr9lc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2Qx8uYr9lc[/video]
This is good stuff for the Indian Navy and the money shots are the video with a deck full of Mig-29Ks aboard. They are spotting five forward and seven aft of the island.
[video=youtube;C2Qx8uYr9lc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2Qx8uYr9lc[/video]