KOCHI, India: India unveiled its first home-built aircraft carrier on Monday, a landmark moment in the $5 billion project that seeks to project the country’s power and check the rising influence of China.
When the INS Vikrant comes into full service in 2018, India will join an elite club of nations that have designed and built their own aircraft carriers including Britain, France, Russia and the United States but not China.
“It’s a remarkable milestone,” Defense Minister A.K. Antony said as he stood on a red carpet in the shadow of the giant ship which was launched from a dry-dock in the city of Kochi and later pulled out into the harbor by tug boats.
“It marks just a first step in a long journey but at the same time an important one,” he added before his wife Elizabeth officially launched the 40,000-ton vessel by placing a garland on its hull.
INS Vikrant, which will be fitted with weaponry and machinery and then tested over the next four years, is a major technological and military advance for a country competing for influence in Asia, analysts say.
“It is going to be deployed in the Indian Ocean region where the world’s commercial and economic interests coalesce. India’s capability is very much with China in mind,” Rahul Bedi, a defense expert with IHS Jane’s Defense Weekly, told AFP.
On Saturday, India announced its first indigenously-built nuclear submarine was ready for sea trials, which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called a “giant stride” for the nation.
“All these are power projection platforms, to project India’s power as an extension of its diplomacy,” Bedi added.
The world’s biggest democracy is spending tens of billions of dollars upgrading its mainly Soviet-era military hardware to bolster its defenses.
Successes in its long-range missile and naval programs have been tempered by expensive failures in developing its own aircraft and other land-based weaponry, leaving the country highly dependent on imports.
INS Vikrant is two years behind schedule after problems in sourcing specialized steel from Russia, delays with crucial equipment and even a road accident in which vital diesel generators were damaged.
Overall, India lags far behind China in defense capabilities, analysts say, making the success in beating its regional rival in the race to develop a domestically-produced aircraft carrier significant.
China’s first carrier, the Liaoning, which was purchased from the Ukraine, went into service last September.
Beijing is reportedly planning to construct or acquire a bigger ship in the future and Jane’s claimed earlier this month that it has seen evidence that an indigenous carrier was being assembled in a shipbuilding facility near Shanghai.
India has one aircraft carrier in operation — a 60-year-old British vessel acquired by India in 1987 and renamed INS Viraat — but it will be phased out in the coming years.
India’s ally Russia is also set to hand over a third aircraft carrier — INS Vikramaditya — later this year after a bitter row over the refurbished Soviet-era warship caused by rising costs and delays.
The INS Vikrant, which means “courageous” or “bold” in Hindi, had a bare flight-deck decked out only with flags and yellow tassels but it will carry Russian-built MiG-29 fighter jets and other light aircraft when it goes into service.
While its hull, design and some of its machinery are domestically made, most of its weaponry will be imported as well as its propulsion system, which was sourced from GE in the United States.
“Its primary role will only be to defend our naval fleet and it will not be used for ground attacks,” retired rear admiral K. Raja Menon told AFP.
“It’s a defense carrier so it will attack platforms that are coming to attack our (naval) fleet ...without air defense our fleet just cannot survive,” Menon said.
C. Uday Bhaskar, a retired naval officer and former director of the National Maritime Foundation in New Delhi, said the ship would “enhance India’s credibility” — but it “would not alter the balance of power with China.”
“China’s nuclear expertise and ship-building capabilities are of a higher order,” he told AFP.
The Indian navy is currently working on 39 ships and has begun planning to make another two aircraft carriers, Bedi said.
India unveils home-built aircraft carrier
https://arab.news/8b9f9
India unveils home-built aircraft carrier
Walk for peace: Buddhist monks arrive in Washington after 2,300-mile journey
- Monks started in Texas, walked through nine states
- Walkers trod daily through frigid winter weather
WASHINGTON: Draped in burnt-orange robes, two dozen Buddhist monks arrived in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday on a 2,300-mile “Walk for Peace,” a self-described spiritual journey across nine states that has been cheered on by crowds of thousands. “People want this,” said Joan Donoghue, 59, from Silver Spring, Maryland, who had come out with four of her friends on Tuesday to see the monks. “I went on Sunday in Virginia and I waited outside for a long time and I talked to so many people and they all said the same thing: that our country needs this. We feel divided and people want more kindness and more compassion and more peace.”
The monks began their walk in Texas more than three months ago, at times braving frigid winter temperatures, sometimes with bare feet, to raise “awareness of peace, loving kindness, and compassion across America and the world.” The marchers continued on despite a powerful winter storm that spread a paralyzing mix of heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain from the Ohio Valley and mid-South to New England, compounded by bitter, Arctic cold gripping much of the US Accompanied by Aloka, a rescue dog from India who has gained a following on social media as “the Peace Dog,” their journey comes at a time of growing tensions in the US President Donald Trump’s tough immigration policy has seen surges of immigration agents and National Guard troops deployed in some cities, with both American citizens and immigrants killed by federal agents.
“We walk not to protest, but to awaken the peace that already lives within each of us,” said Bhikkhu Pannakara, spiritual leader of the Walk for Peace. “The Walk for Peace is a simple yet meaningful reminder that unity and kindness begin within each of us and can radiate outward to families, communities, and society as a whole.”
They will spend Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington and end their journey in nearby Annapolis, Maryland on Thursday.
The walk has garnered support from millions of people on social media, with many sharing messages of support for the monks. Supporters have braved snow and rain to meet and offer flowers to the monks as they passed through their cities. In Washington, hundreds of people came out to see the monks as they walked along a road informally known as Embassy Row because of the high number of embassies and diplomatic residences.
Coleman O’Donoghue, 62, of Washington, caught the attention of many of those onlookers as he carried a large flag with the peace symbol on a sea of blue. Tuesday was the fourth time he and his wife, Bonnie, had seen the monks.
“They are beautiful distraction from the chaos that is taking place in the city, the country and in the world right now,” O’Donoghue said. “It gives everyone a second to pause and think about something that is not as stressful as what the chaos is creating.”
While they waited hours just to see the monks for less than a minute, many of the spectators said the camaraderie and good energy made the experience worthwhile.
Julie Segor, 58, of Washington, made friends with a couple she met while waiting. Carl, 61, and Christine Varner, 65, of Maryland, pooled their flowers and fruit with her to give to the monks as they passed.
“It was a shared common interest to see the monks on the peace walk and give them some fruit and flowers,” Christine said.
During their stop in North Carolina, the state’s governor, Josh Stein, thanked the monks for bringing hope to millions with their message of peace, equality, justice and compassion.
“You are inspiring people at a time when so many are in need of inspiration,” Stein said. The Walk for Peace has made stops in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. The monks met with spiritual and other leaders after arriving in Washington. They also held an interfaith ceremony at the National Cathedral.
During the ceremony at the cathedral, Kimberly Bassett, the District of Columbia’s secretary of state, presented the monks with a proclamation honoring them on behalf of the Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser.
“Today may mark the end of a 2,300-mile walk but it is not the end of our journey for peace. Your pilgrimage has brought people together across cities, states and communities,” Bassett said.
Although the walk has been positive, it has not been without obstacles. While walking through Dayton, Texas, a truck struck the monks’ escort vehicle, injuring several people, according to local media. Two monks sustained serious injuries and one had his leg amputated.
Despite the accident, the group continued to trek across the US to honor not only their original message of peace but also their brothers.
