Posted on 06/13/2012 5:51:10 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Indian aircraft carrier enters sea trials as navy eyes Rafale
Russia has commenced sea trials involving the Indian navy's refurbished aircraft carrier the INS Vikramaditya, as sources suggest the service could consider a future acquisition of the Dassault Rafale.
Originally built for Russia as the Admiral Gorshkov, with a maximum displacement of 43,500t, the refitted and modernised vessel left Severodvinsk in the north of the country on 8 June for open-sea trials, preceeding its delivery to India in December. Once operational, the Vikramaditya will be capable of carrying 30 to 34 aircraft, including RSK MiG-29K deck-based fighters.
Eugenia Legostaeva
Sources say the Indian navy is considering the carrier-capable Rafale M as a possible acquisition, with a potential cost benefit to come from the air force's pending deal for 126 of the type to meet its medium multi-role combat aircraft requirement.
Dassault
Already operational with the French navy and similar in size to the MiG-29K, the Rafale M could potentially be operated from India's future ski-jump-equipped domestic aircraft carriers and offer a greater operational capability than current Russian aircraft and India's Aeronautical Development Agency Tejas naval fighter.
India's interest in new naval fighters stems partly from China's ongoing test work with the aircraft carrier Shi Lang, which will be capable of deploying locally-built versions of the Sukhoi Su-30.
“43,500t”
Is that a big carrier, compared to the Reagan or others in our Navy?
I see now that USS Reagan (CVN-76) *super*carrier is 101-104t, so it’s not really that big of one, in comparison. Still looks huge to me. Is the ski-jump deck because it’s a smaller carrier? Or do others have that feature, too?
We should be allying ourselves with India BIG-TIME. Instead, our continued dysfunctional relationship with two-faced Pakistan has made India suspicious of US policy.
We have two adversaries in common:
Red China and Islamic Jihadists.
Why are we making the Indians buy second-rate Soviet hand-me-downs? If the Admiral Gorshkov, which was laid down in 1978, could be renovated for India, why couldn’t much more capable former US Navy carriers, like the USS John F. Kennedy?
The Indians have made it clear that they do not want an alliance with anyone, including the US. They are quite proud of their ‘non-aligned’ status. Whether this will change due to growing China-Pakistan ties is an open question...
Our foreign policy is insane.
I believe the ski jump was originally developed for the Harrier. Despite the fact that the Brits invented the steam catapult, when they went to the jump jet, they abandoned it. The Harrier I don’t believe is capable of cat operations. to save fuel by not having to do VTOL launches, they sorta do a running start with a assist from the ski ramp.
The Kiev class ships were a weird cruiser-carrier hybrid, and the ski-jump deck is a conversion of the cruiser portion. One reason the Soviets did built them like that is that a treaty forbids the passage of air craft carriers through the Straights of Dardanelles. By calling the Kievs cruisers, the Soviets could move them through the straights and in and out of the Black Sea.
Makes sense; thanks.
Thanks. Wasn’t the Harrier (jump-jet?) the one which had all the crashes/loss of life, early-on? Is it safer now? Aren’t the US Marines using it or a variant, now too?
There were “teething pains” with the Harrier. When Hawker licensed it to McDonnel Douglas (I think), they upgraded it to the Marine AV8B Harrier.
Any cutting edge aircraft, and the Harrier was, Is always going to be more than a little dangerous, especially in the early days when pilots have to learn a whole new way to fly. And of course, so as not to put it all on the pilots shoulders; the designers/engineers had to learn where they screwed up, and fix it.
They call it the bleeding edge for a reason.
A lot of very brave and patriotic men doing that work, especially the test-pilot jobs. Way beyond my pay grade.
Did they also consider/test the SU-33? Or is this going to be considered complimentary to their recent MMRCA Rafale purchase? Both great planes either way.
The SU-33 was ruled out since it’s dimensions were significantly larger for the elevator of the Gorshkov and would have also needed deck reinforcement since the ship was never designed as a ‘pure’ carrier like the Kuznetsov.
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