{"id":8735,"date":"2017-04-25T11:07:02","date_gmt":"2017-04-25T05:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/?p=8735"},"modified":"2017-04-25T11:07:02","modified_gmt":"2017-04-25T05:37:02","slug":"why-chinas-new-aircraft-carrier-should-worry-india-%e0%a4%9a%e0%a5%80%e0%a4%a8-%e0%a4%95%e0%a5%87-%e0%a4%a8%e0%a4%8f-%e0%a4%b9%e0%a4%b5%e0%a4%be%e0%a4%88-%e0%a4%9c%e0%a4%b9%e0%a4%be%e0%a4%9c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/?p=8735","title":{"rendered":"Why China’s New Aircraft Carrier Should Worry India : \u091a\u0940\u0928 \u0915\u0947 \u0928\u090f \u0939\u0935\u093e\u0908 \u091c\u0939\u093e\u091c \u0935\u093e\u0932\u0947 \u091c\u0902\u0917\u0940 \u0928\u094c\u0938\u0948\u0928\u093f\u0915 \u091c\u0939\u093e\u091c \u0938\u0947 \u092d\u093e\u0930\u0924 \u0915 \u0938\u093e\u0935\u0927\u093e\u0928 \u0939\u094b\u0928\u093e \u091a\u093e\u0939\u093f\u090f"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

\u091a\u0940\u0928 \u0915\u093e \u0928\u092f\u093e \u091c\u0902\u0917\u0940 \u0928\u094c\u0938\u0948\u0928\u093f\u0915 \u091c\u0939\u093e\u091c \u091c\u094b \u0939\u0939\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0908 \u091c\u0939\u093e\u091c \u0932\u0947 \u091c\u093e \u0938\u0915\u0924\u093e \u0939\u0948 \u092d\u093e\u0930\u0924 \u0915\u0947 \u0932\u093f\u090f \u0916\u0924\u0930\u093e \u0939\u0948 .\u091a\u0940\u0928 \u0905\u092c \u0909\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0930\u093e\u0902\u091a\u0932 \u0915\u0940 \u0924\u0930\u0939 \u0939\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926 \u092e\u0939\u093e \u0938\u093e\u0917\u0930 \u0915\u094b \u0905\u092a\u0928\u093e \u0915\u094d\u0937\u0947\u0924\u094d\u0930 \u092e\u093e\u0928\u0928\u0947 \u0932\u0917\u093e \u0939\u0948 \u091c\u094b \u0915\u0940 \u092a\u0939\u0932\u0947 \u092d\u093e\u0930\u0924 \u0915\u093e \u0915\u094d\u0937\u0947\u0924\u094d\u0930 \u092e\u0928\u093e \u091c\u093e\u0924\u093e \u0925\u093e .<\/p>\n

Why China’s New Aircraft Carrier Should Worry India<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\"\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Mihir Sharma is a Bloomberg View columnist. He was a columnist for the Indian Express and the Business Standard, and he is the author of \u201cRestart: The Last Chance for the Indian Economy.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
\n
Mihir Sharma<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

The launch of China\u2019s second aircraft carrier, expected as soon as this week, will be an important and depressing moment for India. The \u201cType 001A\u201d — likely to be named the \u201cShandong\u201d — will give China an edge for the first time in the carrier race with its Asian rival, a literal two-to-one advantage. After decommissioning<\/a> the INS Viraat earlier this year, the Indian Navy is down to a single carrier, INS Vikramaditya. Worse, the Shandong has been built at China\u2019s own giant shipyard at Dalian; Vikramaditya is merely a repurposed 1980s-era Russian carrier formerly known as the Admiral Gorshkov.<\/sup><\/p>\n

Even more telling than the raw numbers is what China\u2019s progress says about India\u2019s ability to provide security in its own backyard. Chinese naval strategists have open designs on the Indian Ocean: According<\/a> to one, \u201cChina needs two carrier strike groups in the West Pacific Ocean and two in the Indian Ocean.\u201d The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has talked a great deal about revitalizing the Indian military; it\u2019s opened the defense sector up to greater foreign investment and is building a much-closer relationship with the U.S. military, largely with China in mind. But spending<\/a> has lagged. Worse, successive governments simply don\u2019t seem to have thought through where best to direct those scarce resources.<\/p>\n

For its part, the Indian Navy has gone all-in on a strategy that emphasizes<\/a> carrier battle groups. The idea is that India must dominate the ocean that bears its name and needs carriers in order to project power well beyond its shores. As a result, it wasted far too much time and treasure on the Admiral Gorshkov, which arrived from Russia six years late and at three times the cost<\/a> that had initially been promised.<\/p>\n

Its efforts to develop a homegrown carrier have been even more misbegotten. The Navy plans to name, commission and float the INS Vikrant next year. At that point, the ship reportedly<\/a> won\u2019t have its aviation complex in place, or even anti-aircraft missiles. The Navy has puzzlingly refused to buy India\u2019s indigenous light fighter, the Tejas, saying it\u2019s too heavy. Meanwhile, the MiG-29s being used instead are enormously troubled, according<\/a> to India\u2019s government auditor; more than 60 percent of their engines were withdrawn from service or rejected in just four years. The Vikrant will only be properly combat-ready by 2023 — eight years behind schedule.<\/p>\n

No one would expect India to match China\u2019s defense spending head-to-head. China\u2019s economy is four times the size of India\u2019s; not surprisingly, its defense budget is at least three times larger<\/a>. But the People\u2019s Republic faces a parallel dilemma when confronting the U.S., whose military budget is about three times as big as China\u2019s.<\/p>\n

China has approached this disparity with a much clearer strategy in mind, as well as a far more rational evaluation of its relative strength. Rather than focusing on matching America\u2019s carrier fleet, China first emphasized asymmetric weaponry such as ballistic missiles and submarines, a reflection of the Soviets\u2019 successful<\/a> Cold War strategy. Only now — as its interests and capabilities have grown — is it pouring resources into developing carrier groups.<\/p>\n

By contrast, India\u2019s carrier-first strategy has drained the Navy of resources and left it with just 13 conventional submarines in service. Eleven of those are more than a quarter-century old. The two new ones, amazingly, were commissioned and sent out to wander the deep sea without their main armament<\/a>, torpedoes. Nor has India tried to counter China\u2019s numerical superiority — 70 to 15 — in terms of submarines with specialized anti-submarine weaponry, including helicopters. The Indian fleet has less than 30 superannuated medium-sized anti-sub helicopters, the first of which<\/a> was bought in 1971.<\/p>\n

India\u2019s problem isn\u2019t ultimately a shortage of money; it\u2019s a lack of forethought and political courage. Carriers are big and showy, and bolster national pride; diesel submarines don\u2019t, or at least not to the same degree. A more rational strategy for India — and its peers in Asia and the Pacific Rim who fear China\u2019s growing military might — would ensure that India\u2019s submarine fleet and its anti-submarine armaments are capable enough on their own to deter attempts to control the Indian Ocean, while closer ties with other navies fill in the gaps.<\/p>\n

That would require a clear-eyed appraisal of India\u2019s defense and economic capabilities and requirements — a problem when India doesn\u2019t have an outline of its strategy on the lines of American<\/a> or Chinese<\/a> white papers, nor even a full-time defense minister. The Navy is fortunately starting to train<\/a> more closely with the U.S. and other partners such as Japan, which should increase its effectiveness. But until it thinks harder about where its money should go, it\u2019s going to have a tricky time keeping China out of its backyard.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Granted, China’s first aircraft carrier was also constructed around the shell of a Russian vessel, the Varyag, which the Chinese pretended to have purchased to use as a<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u091a\u0940\u0928 \u0915\u093e \u0928\u092f\u093e \u091c\u0902\u0917\u0940 \u0928\u094c\u0938\u0948\u0928\u093f\u0915 \u091c\u0939\u093e\u091c \u091c\u094b \u0939\u0939\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0908 \u091c\u0939\u093e\u091c \u0932\u0947 \u091c\u093e \u0938\u0915\u0924\u093e \u0939\u0948 \u092d\u093e\u0930\u0924 \u0915\u0947… more »<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8735"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8737,"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8735\/revisions\/8737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}