Abingdonboy
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2010
- Messages
- 29,597
- Reaction score
- 46
- Country
- Location
Hi @IND151; that claim is supported by historical facts. The IN was able to get its first aircraft carrier and aircraft only in the face of some great opposition from the IAF. It happened only because the IN's plan for the Aircraft Carrier was blessed by Adm. Mountbatten as Viceroy then as GG of India. This POV was supported by the RN officers at the helm of the RIN at Independence. There was reason for that. The RN was drastically shrunk after WW 2 and the British Govt. and RN's plan was to "outsource" Maritime Security in South Asia to the IN. So the Fleet expansion plan considered 2 Carriers to be followed later by a third larger Fleet Carrier; making a total of 3. However it did not materialise for a number of reasons. First of all; India chose not to join any defense pact, please remember that the first overtures to join CENTO and SEATO was made to India; which India turned down. India even refused the efforts made by Britain to turn the Commonwealth into a Defence arrangement. Then India had no resources to make heavy capital investments in large ships and finally as Adm. Arun Prakash has explained; the RN needed to keep their own Carriers in light of the Korean war and Cold War scenario. Now that is as far as the potential source of Carriers is concerned. And for India, 1962 happened; so all thoughts and expenses got routed to the IA and to a lesser extent the IAF. The IN became an orphan.
Now re: the IAF opposition. The IAF's mantra was simple, "if it flies, it should be ours". The first IN air assets were incorporated into its Fleet Air Arm in 1953 as FRUs (Fleet Requirement Units) which could hardly be considered attack aircraft, the Fireflys and Shorts Sealand Amphibians. When the truncated plan for acquistion of a single Light carrier INS Vikrant came through; luckily for the IN, the IAF knew nothing about operating Ships esp carriers! So willy-nilly the ship's aircraft, the Sea-Hawks and Alizes came into IN control. But the first two helicopters assigned to Vikrant for 'plane-guard duties' were IAF Sikorsky-55s flown by IAF pilots. And might have remained that way. Luckily the IN selected the Allouette III helicopters for the role which at that time was a far-sighted and excellent choice which eventually was also accepted later by the IAF as its utility Helo. But the shore-based LRMR aircraft like the Liberators and later the Super Constellations remained with the IAF which flew them under the Bombay based MAO (Maritime Air Operations), the IAF steadfastly refused to transfer them to the IN till the time of ACM H.Moolgavkar and Adm. Jal Cursetji, when it was finally effected. But that was probably precipitated by the fact that the IN had made a good case for and succeded in proposing the acquisition of MR/ASW aircraft of its own the Il-38s from Soviet Union. The IAF has had a stubborn history of not wanting to part with its air assets. Now the IA is undergoing the same process that the IN had to undergo.
Having seen the RAF/RN turf wars up close here in the UK. It still impresses me to this day that the IN has been able to make its case for their own ASW/MPA and carrier fighters and won. Right up until they were cut from service the UK's entire Nimrod MPA fleet and most of the Harrier force belonged to the RAF and not the RN.
Some very sensible thinking prevailed in India a long time ago and we are seeing the benefits of this today.
Last edited by a moderator: