Indian Navy conducts exercises with two aircraft carriers at the same time

Analysts say it is a major achievement that only the US Navy has achieved in recent times.

Two Indian aircraft carriers, INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant, operate in the Arabian Sea. Photo: CNN

“This is no small achievement and highlights that the Indian Navy is one of the very few forces in the world that operates more than one aircraft carrier,” said Nick Childs, senior fellow for naval forces and maritime security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IIISS).

The two aircraft carriers INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant led the exercise with over 35 aircraft and a host of surface ships and submarines, according to a press release from the Indian Navy.

India already has the capability to operate two aircraft carriers when the $3 billion Vikrant, India's first indigenous aircraft carrier, was commissioned in September last year, along with the Vikramaditya, purchased from Russia and commissioned in 2013.

While both China and Britain have more than one aircraft carrier in their modern fleets, neither has yet conducted carrier-based operations, analysts say.

China has two aircraft carriers in service, the Soviet-built Liaoning and the domestically built Shandong, while a third, the Fujian, has been launched but not yet commissioned.

Hawaii-based analyst Carl Schuster, a former US Navy captain, said this week's Indian dual-carrier operations showed "the rejuvenation of the Indian Navy".

India commissioned its first aircraft carrier in 1961 and added a second in 1987. It has operated two aircraft carriers twice before, from 1987 to 1997 and from 2013 to 2017.

The Indian Navy press release called the carriers “ sovereign floating aircraft carriers,” adding that “they provide our friends with the assurance that the Indian Navy is capable and ready to support our ‘collective’ security needs in the region.”

New Delhi's forces have been stepping up cooperation with other navies in the Indo- Pacific , including those in the informal Quad partnership — the US, Japan and Australia — during the annual Malabar naval exercise.

Mai Anh (according to CNN)

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/hai-quan-an-do-tap-tran-voi-hai-tau-san-bay-cung-luc-post251913.html