Indian Navy Embarks on Quest for Fighters for Indigenous Carrier
by Neelam Mathews - December 12, 2018, 11:32 AM Two LCA Navy technology demonstrators have been built, the first of which is seen during ski-jump launch trials in 2016. The test facility at Goa is equipped with undercarriage restraints that allow the aircraft to apply full power before being released. (photo: Aeronautical Development Agency) As India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier (INS Vikrant, IAC-1) reaches its third and final phase of construction at the Kochi Shipyard in South India, with sea trials to start in mid-2020, Chief of Naval Staff Sunil Lanba confirmed to AIN that the design for the follow-on IAC-2 has been frozen. India currently has one aircraft carrier, the refurbished 44,000-tonne Soviet-era Kiev-class carrier INS Vikramaditya, which is equipped with RAC MiG MiG-29K fighters. IAC-2 will take at least a decade to construct and will be a 65,000-tonne conventionally powered vessel in CATOBAR (catapult-assisted takeoff but a...