SEA POWER: The Rise of the Aircraft Carrier in the Asia-Pacific

Author(s): Sarosh Bana

Source: World Affairs , FALL 2015, Vol. 178, No. 3 (FALL 2015), pp. 43-50
Published by: Sage Publications, Inc.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24888114

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 SEA POWER
The Rise of the Aircraft Carrier
in the Asia-Pacific

Sarosh Bana

VV ith simmering territorial disputes inflaming the Indo-Asia-Pacific,

countries in this fastest-growing economic region in the world are mak
ing all efforts to buttress their defenses. As each looks nervously at its
neighbors, concerns about sea lanes and maritime parity increase, and
nations that have never before worried about projecting naval powe
have suddenly discovered the aircraft carrier.
These platforms—at times amphibious ships that are essentially
helicopter destroyers with the potential to operate fixed-wing aircraft
including drones—have been gaining favor as the South and East China
Seas become a hotbed of territorial ambitions. It is an all-out naval

buildup that is raising tensions even higher in the region and will
provoke a costly and dangerous maritime arms race.
As many as 18 flatdecks have been or are being bought, bui
operated by the six regional powers of China (five), Japan (four)
(four), Australia (two), South Korea (two), and Thailand (one).
In August 2013, Japan launched its 19,500-ton Izumo, a hybrid
bling a destroyer with a flight deck for attack helicopters. At the
time, India launched its 37,500-ton indigenous aircraft carrier, the Vi
making it part of an exclusive group of countries including the U

Sarosh Bana is the executive editor of Business India, published out of Mumba

FALL 2015 43

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 SEA POWER

US, Italy, Spain, Russia, and France that can make these floating
China has already started building its own maiden aircraft
scheduled for completion in 2018, at the Beijing-based China S
ing Industry Corporation. It plans to eventually build four suc
tionally powered carriers to
join the one it currently has
"As many as 18 flatdecks in service—the Liaoning,
have been or are being which was called the Varyag
when Beijing bought it from
bought, built, or operated Ukraine in 1998 and which

by the six regional powers joined the Chinese Navy in

2012 after major refurbish
of China (five), Japan (four),ment at the Dalian naval

India (four), Australia (two), shipyard in northeast China.

Its hull had been laid at the
South Korea (two), and then Soviet Union's Nikola

Thailand (one)." yev South Shipyard in 1985.

Australia decommis
sioned its sole aircraft carri

er, HMAS Melbourne, in 1982, but it is currently building two 27,800-ton C

berra-class amphibious assault ships capable of launching helicopters an
jump jets. In 2005, South Korea launched the 18,000-ton ROKS Dok
capable of carrying up to 10 helicopters, and plans to build another o
the same class. Even Thailand is in the game, operating the smallest op
ational aircraft carrier in the world, the 11,485-ton HTMS Chakri Naru
et, constructed in Spain and commissioned in 1997.
Of all the players in this maritime free-for-all, China is the most
assertive, taking concerted steps toward becoming a dominant milita
power in the Pacific with a commensurate navy that can project
maritime power. The United States and its allies in the Asia-Pacific a
Indian Ocean were taken aback when Beijing announced, in Nove
ber 2013, that it had created an Air Defense Identification Zone over
much of the East China Sea, cautioning all foreign military or civilia
aircraft to report their flight paths through the zone to China. Beij
followed this move a few months later with a budget of $145 billion f
its military, a 10.1 percent rise over the previous year. In fact, China
often been criticized by Australia, Japan, Taiwan, and other neighbo
for keeping much of its funding for developing new technologies out

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 Sarosh Bana

its official figures, and it is widely assumed that Beijing spe

$200 billion on its military that year.
Indeed, China's military spending is the second-largest in
behind the United States. Although planning to reduce its a
from 572,000 to 440,000—the smallest since before World W
ington had been disquieted enough by the developments in
cific to have announced in 2011 what President Obama calle
strategy in the Asia-Pacific that reallocates, or "rebalances," 6
US naval assets—up from 50 percent then—to the region by
The Chinese actions have also prompted regional players
and Australia to boost their military spending. Japan has p
increase by 5 percent its military expenditure over five ye
billion, for the period 2014-19. Australia's languishing defen
which was $25.3 billion (Australian dollars) for 2013-14, has
to $31.9 billion for 2015-16, with plans to budget 2 percent
for defense. It is assumed that Canberra will thus provide d
$220 billion of funding from 2017-18 to 2022-23.
With the Asia-Pacific having become a cauldron of intens
tion, even small countries in the region are investing as much
in security. Thailand's military-run government has budgeted
for 2016 for its defense sector, a 7 percent rise over 2015. Th
tion represents nearly 8 percent of the total state expenditure i
The Indonesian government has pledged to increase its defe
currently $7.4 billion, to $15 billion by 2020, taking militar
from the present 0.8 percent to 1.5 percent as a proportion
The turn to naval power is contagious. Even in Africa,
said to be acquiring Spain's recently decommissioned aircr
the Principe de Asturias.

There are currently 37 active aircraft carriers in the w

navies. The growing appeal of the aircraft carrier as a viable cap
a fleet lies in its capacity as a force multiplier. As the centerpie
operations, these floating airfields are geared for sea contro
ing the navies to project their maritime and air power far b
areas of operations. They can also serve as powerful platform
(intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance), logistics a

FALL 2015 45

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 SEA POWER

support, anti-submarine and anti-surface missions, and land

Naval strategists have long debated the relevance of the f
a theater of long-range strategic airpower, submarine-launc
and cruise missiles, and unmanned aircraft and drones. Yet
of the carrier has in fact increased over the years since its
November 1910, when Eugene Ely, a 24-year-old civilian pilot
naval aviation by taking off from a wooden platform built o
of an American scout cruiser, the USS Birmingham. Two mon
also recorded the first landing of an aircraft on a ship's dec
touched down on a 130-by-32-foot wooden platform built on
of an armored cruiser, the USS Pennsylvania.
Aircraft carriers today have come a long way from these
origins. They vary from converted conventionally powered
steam and nuclear powered warships that cater to the opera
budgetary, requirements of their navies. Apart from the typ
aircraft they can carry, they have their own range of firepower
are extremely expensive to build and still vulnerable, even i
formidable battlegroup.
For a superpower such as the US, the model for all the
navies in the world, aircraft carriers have been essential for
the seas and asserting maritime supremacy, having played a
supporting role in almost every major American military
since World War II.

In November 2013, the US Navy unveiled the first of its newest gen
eration of aircraft carriers with the launch of the $13 billion USS Geral
Ford. The costliest and most lethal super-carrier ever built, it will be
manned by 4,000 sailors and marines, is so stealthy as to be virtually inv
ible to enemy radar, and will be equipped to launch 220 airstrikes per
day. It will enter the fleet in 2016 and is expected to stay commissioned
for five decades. Though this Ford-class project has been criticize
for delays and cost overruns, there are plans to build three more of thi
type, at a cost of $43 billion.
For countries such as France, however, such surging costs have
deterred extension of aircraft carrier programs. France's solitary carr
er, Charles de Gaulle, is operational for only 65 percent of the year owin
to heavy maintenance requirements on its nuclear power system. A
a result of a budgetary squeeze, France has also had to exit the join
Anglo-French aircraft carrier program.

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 Sarosh Bana

The French Court of Auditors has revealed that France had lavished

214 million euros on studies about the efficacy of this change, 112 m
lion of this going to the UK's Carrier Vessel Future program in 2006-0
A plan to share development costs for two new Queen Elizabeth-cl
carriers for the Royal Navy, and one for the French Navy, negotiated
2002, was suspended in 2008 and finally cancelled in 2013 by Franc
military programming law.

jDut if these traditional maritime powers are pulling back, India i

moving ahead in its plan to become a major power in the Indian Ocea
and Asia-Pacific region. Although financially burdened by the cost, i
has both purchased and built aircraft carriers. The Indian Navy h
traditionally relied upon two carrier battlegroups, one each for its ope
ational commands of the western and eastern seaboards. Its first carri
the INS Vikrant (formerly the HMS Hercules), was commissioned in 19
and taken out of service in 1997. Its second ex-British flatdeck, the I
Viraat (formerly the HMS Hermes), has been sailing with the Indian Na
since 1987. With the arrival in November 2013 of the 44,750-ton I
Vikramaditya (formerly the Admiral Gorshkov, bought from Russia), t
Indian Navy again had two carriers. With the Viraat due to be decomm
sioned in 2018, India has decided to replace it by building its first ind
enous aircraft carrier, a 37,500-ton vessel that will carry the same nam
Its total cost is expected to exceed $4 billion once it is fully equipped
The purchase of the Vikramaditya from Russia was a chastening ex
rience for India, whose comptroller and auditor general noted, "T
navy is acquiring a second hand refitted aircraft carrier that has half t
lifespan and is 60 percent costlier than a new one." The report m
tioned that the ship was in poor condition even at the time of purchas
and needed a complete overhaul to make it battle-ready.
New Delhi had signed a $947 million contract with Moscow in J
uary 2004 for revamping the modified Kiev-class missile cruiser with
aircraft complement. This conversion into a full carrier, with the rem
al of missile launchers and guns from the front deck and constructio
of a full runway and ski jump, saw timelines slip to such an extent as
warrant repeated refits of the original Vikrant and postponement of i
retirement to ensure that India had at least one carrier-based task force.

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 SEA POWER

Once India was committed to the deal, Russia sought rene

to $2.2 billion in March 2010 to pay for additional MiG-29K/
fighters and Ka-27PS/PL and Ka-31R helicopters. A boile
during sea trials also led the Vikramaditya to miss the revis
of December 2012. Undaunted by these problems, however,
suing its plan to build two indigenous Vikrant-class carriers.
Australia's efforts to project sea power have gone more
The two 27,800-ton Canberra-class amphibious assault ship
structed for the Australian Defense Force (ADF), at a cost of
(Australian dollars), will provide one of the most capable a
cated air-land-sea amphibious deployment systems in the wo
jointly crewed with personnel from the navy, army, and air
of them will be able to land a force of more than 2,000 p
helicopter and water craft, along with all their weapons, am
vehicles, and stores.
The range of ADF helicopters that will operate from its f
will include the MRH90, CH-47 Chinook, Blackhawk, S-70B-2
Romeo Seahawk, and the Armed Reconnaissance Helicopte
defensive systems will be the AN/SLQ-25 Nixie anti-tor
defense system, the Nulka active missile decoy system, four 2
mated guns, and six 12.7-mm machine guns.
The HMAS Canberra-was commissioned last November; the
laide will join the fleet in 2016. The Spanish company Na
world's ninth-largest shipbuilder, is responsible for the desi
struction, while BAE Systems Australia is the prime contracto

.Australia's naval construction has drawn a fraction of th

accorded to Japan's, which has come about as a result of
change in the nation's defense policy away from the post
tution that renounces "land, sea, and air forces, as well as o
potential." Deeply concerned about the assertive naval postur
by China, this spring Tokyo commissioned the Japan Mariti
fense Force's first-in-class 19,500-ton helicopter carrier, the JS
country's largest military ship since World War II. Built by
United, the Izumo-class is seen to be configurable as an offen
carrier, which is proscribed by the country's pacifist Constit

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 Sarosh Bana

Izumo and its yet-to-be-named planned sister ship will com

the 13,950-ton Hyuga-class helicopter destroyers, theJS Hyuga
Ise, which entered service in 2009 and 2011. This makes Japan
Asian power, after India, to have four carriers in operation, l
under construction. (China has one, with four more in plann
The launch of the Izumo in August 2013 had roused muc
versy in the Asia-Pacific, with Beijing branding it an "aircraft
disguise" that broke Japan's postwar commitment to non-bel
Beijing was well aware that such naval construction would be a
its prolonged territorial wrangle with Tokyo over the uninhab
of islets called Diaoyu by China and Senkaku by Japan that is
to have potentially vast gas and oil fields off its shores.
Tokyo has a similar dispute with Seoul over the island of L
Rocks, which it calls Takeshima and which South Korea knows
Hence, Seoul's christening of its landing platform helicopter
the ROKS Dokdo irked Japan as much as its own naval develo
the Chinese.

The primary mission of the Japanese helicopter destroyers is

anti-submarine warfare, for which they can launch Sikorsky SH-60K Sea
hawk anti-submarine helicopters, Agusta-Westland MCH-101 Merlin air
borne mine countermeasures helicopters, and also the Boeing MV-22B
Osprey tilt-rotor. But it is the likelihood of unmanned surveillance
drones being operated from the decks of the larger Izumo-class that
has unsettled Beijing, which views this as a prelude to fixed-wing flights.
Such a mission would be in keeping with the efforts of Japan's Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe to step up his country's defense posture by amend
ing the Constitution or, if that fails, "reinterpret" it to allow the military
to conduct combat operations under extreme situations.
But while Japan's naval construction is contentious because of the
military reorientation it represents, China unsettled the Asia-Pacific
region more profoundly when it dispatched its carrier, the Liaoning, to
the disputed waters of the South China Sea, escorted by two destroyers
and two missile cruisers, in November 2013. Beijing maintained it was a
"scientific and training mission," but it was evident to all that the carri
er-led task force was steaming through waters China claims sovereignty
over and which have drawn it into disputes not only with Japan, but also
with the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, and even Malaysia and Brunei.
Construction on the first of China's indigenous Type 001A aircraft

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 SEA POWER

carriers began in 2013, and the hull of the second of th

four carriers is being laid at a shipyard in Shanghai. The cost
is estimated at $9 billion and they are proposed to be outfitt
jump ramps. Beijing is reportedly aiming to establish three c
groups by 2020 to serve all the three major fleets of the Chinese
Type 001A will be an upgraded version of the Liaoning. Chin
officials have yet to determine whether the J-31 stealth fighter
the J-15, which made its first successful landing on the Liaonin
To cope with the rapid naval buildup of China and Japan,
Korean ROKS Dokdo and its proposed sister ship are intende
the country's blue-water force. The second Dokdo-class landin
helicopter ship will have a ski-jump ramp to operate short a
takeoff-and-landing aircraft.
The ROKS Dokdo is the largest vessel in the South Korean
flight deck can accommodate five UH-60 Black Hawk heli
time and is armed with the RIM-116 RAM (rolling airframe
tem, which is an infrared homing surface-to-air missile use
against anti-ship cruise missiles.
As of now, the unpredictable and combative regime of N
has no plans to introduce its own carriers into the troubled
the Asia-Pacific. But if it ever did, the volatility of the maritim
in this region, which increases dramatically year by year, w
even greater leap forward. ©

50 WORLD AFFAIRS

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