INS Vikramaditya, to be commissioned as an Indian Navy warship at Severodvinsk, Russia on Saturday, will be the navy's second aircraft carrier, supplementing the venerable INS Viraat. With INS Vikrant, being built in Cochin Shipyard, due to join the fleet by 2015, the navy continues the tradition of sea control through aircraft carriers, inherited from the Royal Navy. Other navies have shied from this expensive and technically-challenging option. Australia decommissioned its lone aircraft carrier, HMAS Melbourne, in 1982, and relies on a fleet of lighter warships and submarines. India, in contrast, commissioned INS Vikrant in 1961 and, after purchasing INS...