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India’s fortunes in its long struggle to acquire a new aircraft carrier appear to have taken a dramatic turn. First, on Feb. 22, The Weekly Standard (a conservative Beltway publication) raised the possibility of U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates offering New Delhi the soon-to-be-decommissioned USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier during his trip to India. Then (and probably on a related note), Moscow made broad new overtures to resolve its longstanding dispute with New Delhi over the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier. The potential sale of the Kitty Hawk — though U.S. defense officials adamantly have denied that it is even a possibility — would mark one of the most significant developments in global naval dynamics since the collapse of the Soviet navy.
Both Washington and Moscow have been scrambling to curry favor with New Delhi in a broad range of civilian and defense-related endeavors. That rivalry appears to have just paid enormous dividends in South Asia. Russia has made a major overture toward resolving the Gorshkov dispute by agreeing to replace several major subsystems with new parts, rather than simply repairing them. Though pricing still needs to be worked out, it is the most promising development since Russia revealed the massive delays on the Gorshkov in 2007. If this is the only result of rumors about a Kitty Hawk sale, New Delhi is still in a better place than it has been for some time. (It has long been on the losing end of delays on the Gorshkov.)
However, India’s improved position is still poor. It had hoped to have the Gorshkov in hand by this summer, then to spend several years learning the ins and outs of conventional flight operations and integrating those lessons into its already delayed indigenous aircraft carrier program. With the delays at the Sevmash shipyard in Russia’s North, India will lose several years of valuable time, even if the Gorshkov deal is fully resolved.
Thus, the potential for acquiring an aircraft carrier from Washington in the near term — despite at least one vehement denial from a Defense Department official — warrants consideration.
The Kitty Hawk — Pros and Cons
The $48 million sale of the Amphibious Transport Dockship USS Trenton (LPD-14) to India in 2006 is a case in point. The Indians were operating the ship less than a year after the sale was announced. (Though the announcement reportedly was kept secret for a short time at Washington’s behest.)
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