INS Vishal might use EMALS for CATOBAR operations

The Indian Navy — one of just nine navies that operate aircraft carriers — is thinking high-tech in planning its second indigenous aircraft carrier, INS Vishal. The admirals are deciding whether INS Vishal, still only a concept, should launch aircraft from its deck using a technology so advanced that it is not yet in service anywhere: the Electro-Magnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS).

Getting a fully loaded combat aircraft airborne off a short, 200-metre-long deck is a key challenge in aircraft carrier operations. The INS Viraat, currently India’s only aircraft carrier, uses Short Take Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) since its Harrier “jump-jets” take off and land almost like helicopters. INS Vikramaditya, which Russia will deliver this year, uses Short Take Off But Arrested Recovery (STOBAR). The Vikramaditya’s MiG-29K fighters will fly off an inclined ramp called a “ski-jump”; and land with the help of arrester wires laid across the deck, which snag on a hook on the fighter’s tail, literally dragging it to a halt. This system will also be used on the first indigenous aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, which Cochin Shipyard plans to deliver by 2017.

INS Vikramaditya at sea trials ( Image Courtesy - historium.com ) 

But INS Vishal, which will follow the Vikrant, might employ a third technique that India has never used -— Catapult Assisted Take Off But Arrested Recovery, or CATOBAR. Perfected by the US Navy since World War II, this has a steam-driven piston system along the flight deck “catapulting” the aircraft to 200 kilometres per hour, fast enough to get airborne. With greater steam pressure, significantly heavier aircraft can be launched. US Navy carriers launch the E-2D Hawkeye, a lumbering Airborne Early Warning (AEW) aircraft that scans airspace over hundreds of kilometres.

EMALS, the new-generation catapult that the Indian Navy is evaluating, uses a powerful electro-magnetic field instead of steam. Developed by General Atomics, America’s largest privately held defence contractor, EMALS has been chosen by the US Department of Defence for its new-generation aircraft carriers. The first EMALS-equipped carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, will enter service by 2016. In Delhi Last Thursday, General Atomics briefed thirty Indian Navy captains and admirals on EMALS. Scott Forney III, the senior General Atomics official who conducted the briefing, told Business Standard that tight US controls over this guarded technology required special permission from Washington for sharing technical details of EMALS with India.

Senior Indian naval planners tell Business Standard that INS Vikrant, India’s next 40,000 tonne aircraft carrier, will use STOBAR to operate its complement of MiG-29K and Tejas light fighters. But Vikrant’s successor, the 65,000 tonne INS Vishal, could well be a CATOBAR carrier that launches larger and more diverse aircraft.

“While current fighters like the MiG-29K can operate with STOBAR systems, our options will increase with CATOBAR. We could operate heavier fighters, AEW aircraft and, crucially, UCAVs (unmanned combat air vehicles). A UCAV would require a CATOBAR system for launch,” says one admiral.

News Courtesy - business-standard.com

INS Vishal to be a CATOBAR Aircraft Carrier

The Indian navy is likely to call an end to its tryst with ski-jump aircraft carriers, deciding that its next big vessel will be a flat-top with a catapult-launch system.

Artist Impression of INS Vikrant, a STOBAR Carrier ( Image Courtesy - warshipsifr.com )

While India's first home-built carrier, known as the Vikrant, is to be a 44,000-ton short-takeoff-but-arrested-recovery (Stobar) carrier, the second ship—tentatively titled Vishal (“Immense”)—is seen as a 65,000-ton flat-top with a steam-catapult system. The Naval Design Bureau, which oversees design and implementation of all indigenous warship building efforts, is expected to freeze its requirements by year-end.

Artist Impression of a CATOBAR Carrier ( Image Courtesy - navyrecognition.com )

A commodore with the Naval Design Bureau says, “A decision has been taken to move away from conventional STOBAR and Short-Take-Off-Vertical-Landing (STOVL) designs.”

The Indian carrier Vikramaditya—the former Russian carrier Admiral Gorshkov—and first indigenous carrier (Vikrant) will be transition vessels to Stobar operations. The next logical step is catapult-assisted takeoff-and-barrier-arrested recovery (Catobar), “which brings with it immense advantages in the mix of assets we can deploy on deck,” says the commodore.

A flat-top configuration also supports the navy's interest in fixed-wing airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft for operations off a carrier, and comes as good news for Northrop Grumman, which has spent the better part of the last decade pitching its E-2 Hawkeye to the Indian navy.

News Courtesy - aviationweek.com

INS Vishal - India started work on second Aircraft Carrier

India has started work on the second Aircraft Carrier to be called as Vishal (name doing the rounds on web). Defence sources have confirmed that the project has now moved to the design stage, which is being undertaken by the Navy’s Naval Design Bureau. As per preliminary blue-print, it would have displacement of massive 65,000 tons i.e. 25,000 tons heavier than the first Aircraft Carrier, INS Vikrant II.

INS Vishal, an artist representation ( Image Courtesy - indiandefence.com )

Vishal will be operating bigger fighter aircraft comparable to Sukhoi 33, it would also be featuring steam catapults, and will carry airborne early-warning (AEW) aircraft. Vishal would also carry the naval versions of the Light Combat Aircraft, which is in development.

India will need at least three aircraft carriers to protect its vast coastline which touches - Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, and Indian Ocean. The Vishal demands a mighty cost of about 1.5 billion USD , according to Defence Ministry sources, where as INS Vikrant II is being built at a cost of 750 million USD. Vikrant, which is delayed by two years, is now expected to be commissioned in Indian Navy by 2017.

  

INS Vikrant II, under construction at Cochin ( Image Courtesy - livefist.blogspot.com )

By 2018, Indian Navy would be able to project power with three carrier battle groups centered around - INS Viraat (to be decommissioned only after 2020, due to extensive upgrades), INS VIkramaditya (to be commissioned by Dec 2012), and INS Vikrant II (expected commissioning date as year 2017). 

 INS Vikramaditya at sea trials ( Image Courtesy - defenceforumindia.com )

If there are no massive delays and feet dragging on strategic decisions, then it might be INS Vishal which would replace INS Viraat in the year 2020.

News Courtesy - defencenews.in

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