I'm slightly perplexed as to why some people can't accept this news.
The IN has said they want at least a 3 carrier navy.
There is nothing particuarly out of the blue about this news- the IN has for some time stated they are looking at a 65,000+ ton CATOBAR congfured ACC design as a follow on to the IAC-1.
They've said they'd want fixed wing AWACS (and have thus been briefed on the E-2D twice AFAIK and the USG has even cleared the sale of the E-2D to India).
Bare in mind the timeline for induction is not tommorow or even 5 years time but ~2022-4.
I think a much more interesting question to ask is where will the IN stop? 3 ACCs enough for them? IIRC a IN CNS said that ideally the IN would like 5-6 ACCs in the mid to long term. And if so will the IAC-2 design became the standard for any follow-on ACCs or will the IN draw up yet ANOTHER design possibly larger? Possibly nuclear powered? Possibly both?
Perhaps you missed what I am trying to say ....
I simply say the news is too good to be true ....
Assuming that indian economy will be back on track in next few years and that India will be able to spend little more for arther advanced US platforms this really won't be a big issue ( eventhough the US platforms are likely to cost twice as much it would cost generally ) ....the important crux is not to get involved too deep with US !
just as we maintained respectable distance with Russian despite our historic friendly ties ...we need to be more careful about US because US is no Russia .
US knows how to extract price they invested in first place ....
Don't we see what is happening in our neighborhood ?
At this juncture when china is gradually getting aggressive ..it will be tempting to get aligned with US ....
but I believe such alignment with US will be detrimental to India in long run ...
US has historic record of running over its ally and dumping them when work is done ....
We as a nation of billion people should chart our own destiny and should not put reins of our fate in another country's hands !
You see it becomes most difficult to maintain balance when ride becomes topsy-turvy !!!
I hope India will be able to maintain that balance !!!
You see my objection in not getting AC from US .....my objection is to put our fate in their hands ....!!!