Following the PoW's Indo-Pacific tour has led to this question:

>China/Japan introduce the Liaonings/Izumos in the late 2010s/2020s
>everyone starts pissing and shidding themselves about the revival of Japanese militarism, China Numba Wan and the end of US hegemony even though the Izumo refits still aren't finished and the chinks have just barely gotten the hang of operating outside brownwater as of 2025
>India has been a two-carrier navy since the 1960s
>complete non-entities that have barely been used outside of parking off Pakistan during the various wars and you hardly see them doing overseas show-the-flag deployments like the Bong/Frog/Italian carriers

Why has India been unable to translate their long history of carrier operations into geopolitical relevance outside their immediate region? Even Russia got some use out of the Kuznetsov during the Syria deployment, as big a farce as that was. The Chinese and Japanese carriers aren't even ready and yet they're having more of an impact. Why even bother having carriers when you aren't using them to project power

>>63931748 (OP)
From what I understand they serve the same function as the Italian carriers which is shoreline patrol rather than long distance force projection. Also, frankly I doubt the jeets are any good at carrier ops, just because you do something for a long time doesn't make you good

>>63931748 (OP)
Funny you mention the Russians when their battlecruisers have never had any combat experience and those have been built since the cold war. Building a navy means having the ships when you don't need them to do anything. India has carriers because it was part of the British empire. It's first carrier 2 carriers were British WW2 light carriers, now they have 2 newer light carriers, one of them was soviet. One of them they built. They are building another one as well. But keep in mind, these aircraft carriers are not real fleet carriers. America is the only country with real aircraft carriers.

>>63931748 (OP)
India is spiritually and biologically third world, and they can't change that no matter how much they try and pretend otherwise.

>>63931748 (OP)
Lack of usable fixed-wing aircraft, hampered by picking carrier designs that can provide limited support. Their previous gen could only fly harriers, and their current gen can only fly MiG-29Ks. Allegedly their newest one will eventually fly Rafales but that's been delayed again.

>>63931912
The PLAN will be bringing the Fujian into service soon. It's comparable to a Kitty Hawk class with 21st century technology.

>>63931865
>rather than long distance force projection
the italians routinely go into the indian ocean and SEA tho. It's the poos that never leave