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China, India set course for naval strength

By Shi Yang: 0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, July 26, 2012

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Russia has more than once sent out the message that it will rebuild its naval force. However, financial pressures mean that Russia is only able to maintain its navy's strategic nuclear force.

Aircraft carrier Varyag [File photo]

Not far from the North Shipyard where the carrier Vikramaditya is being refitted, Russia is building a new generation of naval vessel called the Admiral Gorshkov, which is the former name of Vikramaditya.

Ironically, the "Admiral Gorshkov", once used as the name of a 40,000 ton carrier, is now a large frigate with a displacement of only 5,000 tons. The new "Admiral Gorshkov" is a symbol of the state of the Russian navy: It has ambitions to restore its former glory, but lacks the ability to put such ambitions into practice.

Russia discarded its plan to repair the large Kirov-class battle cruiser, and instead built a batch of 2,000-ton light frigates and 5,000-ton medium-sized surface ships in order to strengthen its coastal defenses.

But it could not even implement this downscaled plan. The Russian navy has to use 600-ton large missile boats and tiny frigates in order to keep up appearances during its annual large-scale military drill.

We can predict that Russia will be unable to strengthen its naval force in the short term. Most of its ships will go out of service in 10 years, and without new ships to take their place, the Russian navy will inevitably become a near-sea fleet.

While the Russian navy is in decline, both China and India have built up their navies after learning from Russia's heritage and buying large surface ships from Russia and building their naval fleets around those carriers.

However, India and China's paths have been different. After purchasing the Gorshkov from Russia, India chose to get it repaired in Russia because it lacked the capacity and technology to undertake such a difficult project.

India has spent billions of US dollars upgrading the carrier Vikramaditya without improving its own shipbuilding abilities. Instead the upgrade improved the shipbuilding capabilities of the Russian shipyard. No wonder Russia plans to send its own carrier to the shipyard for upgrading after the upgrade of the Vikramaditya is completed.

China purchased the unfinished aircraft carrier Varyag from Ukraine at a price of US$20 million. Depending solely on its own industry and advanced ship building craft, China repaired and made improvements to the carrier. By doing so, China spent less money, accumulated experience in aircraft carrier remodeling and learned valuable lessons which will help it to construct its own carrier.

More importantly, China and India are not at the same industrial level. Over the past ten years, the Chinese navy has built 16 large missile frigates and at least 10 guided-missile destroyers, as well as advanced submarines. Most of the weapons have been designed and made by China. India has started to build 6 destroyers and 6 frigates over the past 10 years, but currently only one frigate has been put into service. And it seems that the Indian navy will rely on overseas purchases in order to maintain its fleet in the future.

(This article was first published in Chinese and translated by Zhang Ming'ai.)