new Delhi: In a further boost to New Delhi’s defense prowess, US defense major Boeing will send two F-18 Super Hornet fighter aircraft to India next month.
Indian to conduct flight tests at INS Hansa’s shore-based test facility in Goa to consider two F-18 Super Hornet fighter jets as main armament on India’s new aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, Hindustan Times reports. sent to the Navy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will commission the warship, still called the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier-1 (IAC-1), on August 15 this year on the 75th year of Indian independence.
The flight test of the F-18 carrier capable fighter aircraft on the 928 feet deck of India’s only aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya is expected around May 21, Hindustan Times reported from New Delhi and Washington.
The leading English daily said in its report that this date may depend on the availability of air refueling tankers with Boeing to fly the F-18 to Goa.
The development comes as INS Vikramaditya is soon to join duties after over a year-long overhaul and maintenance, while the IAC-1 or INS Vikrant is under full sea trials and will be commissioned for the MiG-29 later this year. Will be in action with fighter planes. Board for the time being.
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The other fighter considered for INS Vikrant and Vikramaditya is the Rafale-M.
The Indian Navy, which had tested the Rafale-M at the same facility in Goa in January this year with good results, now plans to procure 26 fighter jets on a government-to-government basis, as the ADA has developed an indigenous twin-engined deck. designed. -based fighters may be ready for trials by the end of this decade.
India now needs at least two aircraft carriers to show dominance in the Indo-Pacific along with other QUAD partners.
The move assumes significance as China is building its third aircraft carrier indigenously.
Accordingly, Indian plans to deploy one carrier group each on the western and eastern seaboards with further deployment capability in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The highly capable and versatile F-18 Super Hornet can be fitted with both lifts of the IAC-1 with the wings folded.
According to a Hindustan Times report, a maximum of eight two-seater F-18 fighters are capable of launching from the deck of either Vikrant or Vikramaditya, unlike the Rafale-M two-seater, which can operate only from an shore-based facility and Thus losing a third of its combat capability.
This shows that while the F-18 twin-seater fighters can be launched from the carrier deck during the war, the twin-seater Rafale-M fighters can only be launched from the shore.
Compared to the Rafale-M fighter, the F/A-18 Hornet can carry four anti-submarine missiles.