The Hindu : National : Navy to have 2 aircraft carriers from next year

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Saturday, Jan 06, 2007
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Navy to have 2 aircraft carriers from next year

Special Correspondent

Navy will always have two aircraft carriers from next year

ABOARD INS VIRAAT: Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Sureesh Mehta on Friday said the Navy would ``always have'' two aircraft carriers from next year when Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, to be renamed INS Vikramaditya, joined the fleet.

India is the only naval power in Asia possessing an aircraft carrier — INS Viraat.

By the time it was decommissioned after seven years, an indigenously built carrier would be ready and Vikramaditya would be in service, he pointed out.

The production line, thereafter, would be kept ready and the Navy, at all times, would have these potent force projection ships. The Navy always wanted three aircraft carriers.

"Barak performing well"

Talking to newspersons on board the carrier, sailing off the coast of Karwar in Karnataka to Mumbai, Admiral Mehta said the Israeli Barak missiles were performing well.

They have been fitted on several warships after the indigenously developed Trishul missile was not deemed to have reached the stage of serial production and induction into the Navy.

Controversy surrounded the Barak missile after the Central Bureau of Investigation held that middlemen were involved in the deal.

After the successful display of the missile's prowess on the high seas, Admiral Mehta said only the first two trials were unsuccessful due to manufacturing defects.

In the subsequent trials, the missile located and destroyed incoming missiles with precision.

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