Vikramaditya is an improvised and refurbished aircraft carrier. It may not have the best design or capabilities as an aircraft carrier – after all it has a cruiser hull and was never intended to operate conventional fixed wing fighters.
Reality is that this is the best option available to the Indian Navy at the time. And it is commissioned into the force ‘here & now’. The only other speculated option, the Foch/Clemenceau did not have any compatible fighter aircraft.
Vikramaditya is an improvised and refurbished aircraft carrier. It may not have the best design or capabilities as an aircraft carrier – after all it has a cruiser hull and was never intended to operate conventional fixed wing fighters.
Reality is that this is the best option available to the Indian Navy at the time. And it is commissioned into the force ‘here & now’. The only other speculated option, the Foch/Clemenceau did not have any compatible fighter aircraft.
…I know that Germany tried their PzH 2000 turret on a ship and had good results. Has any other countries tried mounting artillery on ships with success? ….
This experiment failed. Germany concluded that naval guns had to be especially designed for use @ sea.
Excellent thread and good points. One question, a lot of the discussion is on passive detection and ID technology using EO sensors. The ship will have a powerful radar – and current generation AShMs have long ranges … doesnt the fighter have a upper hand thanks to Anti Radiation homing?
And haven’t fighters had the upper hand since WW2 anyways? What does stealth technology on warships so drastically change to alter the equation?
They are dual use. The ramp and cargo doors do exist and fuel tank is removable. Though it is possible that the winch is not present.
I have pictures to prove the same (not with me at the moment).
BTW JangBoGo, the IAF’s IL-78MKIs are not convertible. They’re pure tankers.
Plus I read years back on bharat rakshak from someone who’d seen their interiors that all the heavy cargo winching equipment was missing from the hold.
If it were available earlier they could have used in on Iraqi WMD as well 😉
Coverage on the aviationist blog tells us that the 30,000lb MOP weapon is ready to destroy targets such as Iranian nuclear facilities and Syrian Chemical weapons dumps
T-50 series is much more comparable to the JF-17 or F-CK-1 rather than the LCA Tejas. In fact T-50 is the only ‘western’ fighter in the market comparable to the JF-17.
Will be interesting if these 2 were to ever face off in a competition.
As a mechanic in the IDF/AF, I work on the new F-16I (BLK 52), I can tell you these facts:
A. The 600 gal tanks are jettisonable… we install them with their own pylon, and they can break off from it when being jettisoned (same goes for the 370s)
The comment on the Jaguar is not accurate. the size issue was only with the first generation of Indian nukes … later designs fit to Jaguar and MiG-27s as well.
“As the fighters back to the show probably would have reached a hit, which does not mean that he shot her, and the pilot catapult, but the battle left him.”
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