INS Vikrant builds Indian carrier expertise

Judging INS Vikrant solely by its missing features overlooks the effort required to establish India's indigenous carrier-building capability. Foreign advice was bought where available, but India still had to develop and assemble the capabilities needed to design and build the ship. Carrier construction and indigenous nuclear-submarine work are presented as evidence of the country's naval industrial development. A personal procurement preference follows: a well-supported indigenous carrier program would have deserved more funding at the expense of some other projects. The reasoning concerns India's continuing capacity to develop its own ships, as well as Vikrant's immediate value.