Indian Armed Forces at a glance

By: Kartikeya Semwal With the ever-increasing threat posed by China’s PLA Navy in the IOC (Indian Ocean Region), neighbouring countries like Japan, South Korea and Australia have started feeling the need to induct and operate aircraft carriers of their own. Till now, none of these countries has an operational Aircraft Carrier (AC). Instead, they operate heli-carriers and/or ALS (Amphibious Landing Ships). But more than them, India feels the immediate need of operating at least 3 Aircraft Carriers (ACs). Currently, the Indian Navy has a solo AC called INS Vikramaditya, a 44,000-tonne behemoth brought from Russia. By 2022, India will get its 2 nd AC which is its own indigenous AC called INS Vikrant; a 45,000-tonne ship. Now since India has a vast coastline to guard, it needs 1 AC fleet to guard its western coasts & another to guard its eastern coast. INS Vikramaditya in battle mode. Guarding the western coast is easy when compared to the eastern coast as our foe Pakist