Chinese Navy gets its first aircraft carrier, a cause of concern for the Indian Navy?

The Chinese Navy has inducted its aircraft carrier earlier this week (September 25). The Indian Navy, which claims an edge over its Chinese counterpart owing to its long maritime legs and long history of seamanship, is closely watching the development.

A Chinese Warship during a joint exercise with the Indian Navy this year

The PLA Navy has been planning to enter the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) sometime in 2015 only. However, the increased piracy in the Gulf of Aden provided it with an opportunity to deploy its warships for longer durations in the international water and learn the international best practices by closely coordinating with the foreign navies. Buoyed by this the Chinese Navy inducted its first aircraft carrier named Liaoning in its fleet. The announcement was finally made by the Defence Ministry of China through website of PLA.

The Soviet-vintage aircraft carrier has been named after a northeast province of China. PLA navy has indicated that the ship is likely to be used for training purposes only. 

"The entry into the ranks of this aircraft carrier will raise the level of modernization of China's overall naval operational forces," defence ministry said. The Liaoning will help "effectively protect national sovereignty, security and development interests" it was officially announced. 

The Indian Navy is monitoring the situation, but maintains there is nothing alarming in it. As put by the skipper of the Indian Navy's lone aircraft carrier INS Viraat: "See you cannot reach a great power status in 10-15 days. Navies are made over centuries. You have to keep building them for over years and they are a costly proposition. So any navy aspiring to operate carriers will be envious of countries operating them. Naval aviation is a great skill and it takes 25 years to hone it. Once you build this capability you cannot do away with it."

However, what worries the Indian Navy is the unforeseen delay in the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier indigenous aircraft carrier programme followed by trial problem in the Russian-built Admiral Gorshkov. In both the cases the delivery dates have been pushed back, which by conservative estimates mean that India will get its new aircraft carrier only by early 2014. 

The voyage of Varyag - the written off Soviet Navy aircraft carrier from the 1980s - to the Chinese Navy's Liaoning is one that of a determination of the eastern neighbour to find its maritime legs at the earliest. The construction of Varyag had started in 1980s and its construction stopped in 1992 after the disintegration of the USSR. It remained in the Ukrainian shipyard unfinished until 1998 when a Macau-based Chinese company bought it for US$20 million. In March 2002, the vessel was towed to the Dalian Shipyard in northern China after an arduous sea voyage spanning months. Since then the warship has been stationed there for refurbishment.