Capabilities
Indian Aircraft Carrier (IAC) Project 71 - a knol by Vijainder K Thakur
The 260 meters long and 60 meter whide ship will have a speed of 28 knots and an endurance of 8,000 nautical miles.
The carrier will field long-range surface-to-air missile systems with a multi-function radar, a close-in weapon system, the most modern C/D band early air-warning radar and the V/UHF tactical air-navigational and direction finding systems.
It will have jamming capabilities over the expected electromagnetic (EM) environment, along with carrier control approach radars to aid air operations. Integration of all weapon systems onboard will be through an indigenous combat management system.
The ship’s integration with the Navy’s network-centric operations will provide for force multiplication.
Aircraft Complement
The Navy plans to equip IAC-1 with a mix of MiG-29K / LCA Naval Variant currently under development at ADA.
However, in view of the slow progress of the LCA project, the service is actively looking at alternatives.
It has ssued an RFI (request for information) to several global aviation majors, including American Boeing, French Dassault and Russian MiG companies, for ‘an alternate deck-based aircraft’ in November.
‘‘Information is being sought to acquire over 40 fighters for the 40,000-tonne IAC-1 (indigenous aircraft carrier), being built at the Cochin shipyard and expected to roll out by 2014-2015 now, and IAC-2, which will follow later,’’