India launches new aircraft carrier as China concerns grow

INS Vikrant, India’s first indigenously-built aircraft carrier, sails for sea trials from Kochi, India (Indian Navy via AP)

India has launched its first home-built aircraft carrier as it seeks to counter China’s much larger and growing fleet, as well as expanding its own indigenous shipbuilding capabilities.

The INS Vikrant, whose name is a Sanskrit word for “powerful” or “courageous”, is India’s second operational aircraft carrier, joining the Soviet-era INS Vikramaditya that it purchased from Russia in 2004 to defend the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal.