A shore-based test facility (SBTF), also known as a land-based test facility, is used for the flight testing of aircraft that operate from aircraft carriers. They are also used for the training of the pilots who will operate the aircraft from the aircraft carriers. Only four countries in the world have SBTF or LBTF; they are China, India, Ukraine / Russia and the United States. [1] [2] [3]
China's People's Liberation Army Navy has two test centers, one at Wuhan and one at Huludao. [4] [5] [6]
The Indian Navy's SBTF is located at INS Hansa in Goa, and is used to train and certify navy pilots of the Mikoyan MiG-29K for the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya, and for the developmental trials of the naval HAL Tejas. [7] [8] [9] This SBTF was designed by Nevskoye Design Bureau (NDB) of Russia for Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA). The ski-jump resembles part of a parabola and has an inclination of 14 degrees. The highest point of the ski-jump is at 5.71 metres from the ground. [10]
The Ukrainian Navy inherited a former Soviet Naval Aviation base at Novofedorivka. This base now hosts the Nitka Naval Pilot Training Center, which is used by the Russian Navy to train their carrier pilots. This base, being in Crimea, is now in Russian control. [11] [12] [13]
The United States Navy has been testing the new Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System from the land based launch facility at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. [14]
An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a naval force to project air power worldwide without depending on local bases for staging aircraft operations. Carriers have evolved since their inception in the early twentieth century from wooden vessels used to deploy balloons to nuclear-powered warships that carry numerous fighters, strike aircraft, helicopters, and other types of aircraft. While heavier aircraft such as fixed-wing gunships and bombers have been launched from aircraft carriers, these aircraft have not successfully landed on a carrier. By its diplomatic and tactical power, its mobility, its autonomy and the variety of its means, the aircraft carrier is often the centerpiece of modern combat fleets. Tactically or even strategically, it replaced the battleship in the role of flagship of a fleet. One of its great advantages is that, by sailing in international waters, it does not interfere with any territorial sovereignty and thus obviates the need for overflight authorizations from third-party countries, reduces the times and transit distances of aircraft and therefore significantly increase the time of availability on the combat zone.
Indian Navy Ship Vikrant was a Majestic-class aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy. The ship was laid down as HMS Hercules for the British Royal Navy during World War II, but was put on hold when the war ended. India purchased the incomplete carrier in 1957, and construction was completed in 1961. Vikrant was commissioned as the first aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy and played a key role in enforcing the naval blockade of East Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.
Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Kuznetsov is an aircraft carrier serving as the flagship of the Russian Navy. She was built by the Black Sea Shipyard, the sole manufacturer of Soviet aircraft carriers, in Nikolayev within the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) and launched in 1985, becoming fully operational in the Russian Navy in 1995. The initial name of the ship was Riga; it was launched as Leonid Brezhnev, embarked on sea trials as Tbilisi, and finally named Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Kuznetsov after Admiral of the fleet of the Soviet Union Nikolay Gerasimovich Kuznetsov.
The Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrying cruiser, Soviet designation Project 1143.5, is a class of aircraft carriers operated by the Russian and Chinese navies. Originally designed for the Soviet Navy, the Kuznetsov-class ships use a ski-jump to launch high-performance conventional aircraft in a STOBAR configuration. The design represented a major advance in Soviet fleet aviation over the Kiev-class carriers, which could only launch VSTOL aircraft. The Soviet Union's classification for the class was as a heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser, which permits the ships to transit the Turkish Straits without violating the Montreux Convention. However, the Chinese variants are classified as aircraft carriers.
The Sukhoi Su-33 is an all-weather carrier-based twin-engine air superiority fighter designed by Sukhoi and manufactured by Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association, derived from the Su-27 and initially known as the Su-27K. Compared with the Su-27, the Su-33 has a strengthened undercarriage and structure, folding wings and stabilators, all for carrier operations. The Su-33 has canards, and its wings are larger than the Su-27 for a slower stall speed. The Su-33 has upgraded engines and a twin nose wheel, and is air refuelable.
The Indian Navy is the maritime branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy. As a blue-water navy, it operates significantly in the Persian Gulf Region, the Horn of Africa, the Strait of Malacca, and routinely conducts anti-piracy operations and partners with other navies in the region. It also conducts routine two to three month-long deployments in the South and East China seas as well as the western Mediterranean sea simultaneously.
STOBAR is a system used for the launch and recovery of aircraft from the deck of an aircraft carrier, combining elements of "short take-off and vertical landing" (STOVL) with "catapult-assisted take-off but arrested recovery" (CATOBAR).
INS Vikramaditya is a modified Kiev-class aircraft carrier and the flagship of the Indian Navy. She entered into service in 2013.
Dabolim International Airport is the international airport in Dabolim, Goa, India. It is operated by the Airports Authority of India as a civil enclave in an Indian Navy naval airbase named INS Hansa. The airport is located in Dabolim, 4 kilometers from the nearest city Vasco da Gama, 23 kilometers from Margao, and about 30 kilometers from the state capital, Panaji.
The Mikoyan MiG-29K is a Russian all-weather carrier-based multirole fighter aircraft developed by the Mikoyan Design Bureau. The MiG-29K was developed in the late 1980s from the MiG-29M. Mikoyan describes it as a 4+ generation aircraft.
The Indian Naval Air Arm is the aviation branch and a fighting arm of the Indian Navy which is tasked to provide an aircraft carrier based strike capability, fleet air defence, maritime reconnaissance, and anti-submarine warfare.
Since the 1970s, China's People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has had ambitions to develop and operate aircraft carriers, and since 1985 has acquired four retired aircraft carriers for study; namely, the British-built Australian HMAS Melbourne and the ex-Soviet carriers Minsk, Kiev and Varyag. The Varyag later underwent an extensive refit to be converted into the Liaoning, China's first operational aircraft carrier, which also served as a basis for China's subsequent design iterations.
Liaoning is a Chinese Type 001 aircraft carrier. The first aircraft carrier commissioned into the People's Liberation Army Navy Surface Force, she was originally classified as a training ship, intended to allow the Navy to experiment, train and gain familiarity with aircraft carrier operations. Following upgrades and additional training in late 2018, Chinese state media announced that the ship would shift to a combat role in 2019.
INS Hansa, is an Indian naval air station located near Dabolim in Goa, India. It is India's biggest naval airbase. The military air base has a civil enclave, that operates as Dabolim Airport.
Admiral Radhakrishna Hariram Tahiliani, PVSM, AVSM was a Flag officer in the Indian Navy. He served as the 12th Chief of the Naval Staff from 1 December 1984 until 30 November 1987. His prior commands included those as the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief (FOC-IN-C) of the Western Naval Command, FOC-IN-C of the Southern Naval Command and Flag Officer Commanding Western Fleet (FOCWF). A carrier-based aircraft pilot, he also served as the commanding officer of the aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant (R11).
INS Vikrant is an aircraft carrier constructed by the Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) at Kerala for the Indian Navy. It is the first aircraft carrier to be built in India. It is named Vikrant as a tribute to India's first aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant (1961). The name Vikrant means "courageous" in Sanskrit. The motto of the ship, "Jayema Saṁ Yudhi Spr̥dhaḥ", means 'I defeat those who fight against me'.
The Indian Navy has been focusing on developing indigenous platforms, systems, sensors and weapons as part of the nation's modernisation and expansion of its maritime forces. As of 2020 the Indian Navy has 43 vessels of various types under construction, including an aircraft carrier; destroyers; frigates; corvettes; and conventional-powered and nuclear-powered submarines and plans to build a strong navy of 200 vessels and 500 aircraft by 2050. In 2013 a senior naval official outlined the Indian Navy's intention to build a 200 ship navy over a 10-year period. According to Chief of Naval Staff's statement in December 2020, India has transformed from a buyer's navy to a builder's navy. All 41 ships under construction are being produced in Indian shipyards, both publicly and privately owned. However some projects have suffered from long delays and cost overruns.
Theatre Level Operational Readiness Exercise (TROPEX) is an inter-service military exercise involving the participation of the Indian Army, Air Force, Navy and the Coast Guard. The exercise generally commences at the beginning of each year and lasts a month. It is generally carried out in three phrases: independent workup phase, joint workup phase and tactical phase.
The HAL Twin Engine Deck Based Fighter (TEDBF) is a canard delta wing, twin-engine, carrier-based, multirole combat aircraft currently under development for the Indian Navy. The TEDBF is being designed and developed by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), and will be manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The TEDBF is intended to perform a multitude of missions, including air supremacy, air interdiction, anti-access/area denial (A2/AD), anti-ship warfare (ASW) and electronic warfare (EW) missions. The TEDBF is expected to replace the Mikoyan MiG-29K onboard the INS Vikramaditya and the INS Vikrant.
Saky is an air base adjacent to the settlement of Novofedorivka, Crimea. It was initially built by the Soviet Union in the 1930s, and has been operated under both Ukrainian and Russian sovereignty since 1992.