And Then There Were Four

Strategy Page ^ | 11/15/08

[Dawnsblood]

India will join the United States, Russia and China by building a land based landing field in the same shape as an aircraft carrier. The SBTF (shore-based training facility) will be built outside the west coast port city of Goa. This will be used to train pilots to land on carriers. India is getting its first four MiG-29K fighters soon. These aircraft are modified to operate from carriers. The remaining twelve MiG-29Ks will arrive by the end of 2009.

India will receive the refurbished Russian aircraft carrier Gorshkov in 2012. This deal will cost $2.5 billion. This includes the purchase of the poorly maintained Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, and Russian shipyards performing repairs, modifications and upgrades. Then there was the $800 million cost of aircraft, weapons and equipment. Building a Gorshkov type carrier today would cost about $4 billion, and take several years more.

[11Bush]

I'm just an old grunt, but I think it is somewhat different landing on an island shaped like a carrier than it is landing on the pitching deck in heavy seas on the real thing.

There is only one nation that conducts major air operations from carrier based aircraft and that is the USofA. We have been perfecting the process for the last 70 years.

[Tax-chick]

Landing on a carrier-sized ground runway is a useful training step, but it’s not the real thing.

[Nateman]

I knew France and England had carriers so "and then there was four" was bogus. 9 countries have carriers.

[Cronos]

I think the Indians did use aircraft carriers in their 1971 war with pakistan. And the British definitely used aircraft carriers in the Falkland war with Argentina. France uses the aircraft carriers as “awe” in their colonies in West Africa (oh, well, in “francophonie Afrique”)

[moreofthesame]

Its not talking about carriers but “shore-based training facility” for ACs. China does not even have an operational aircraft carrier.