SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
Boeing and Dassault have made claims that their deck-based fighter jets that have been offered to the Indian Navy tender for the 26 Multirole Carrier Borne Fighters (MRCBF) aircraft can operate from both Indian Navy operated Aircraft carriers that factually was not true, in our previous report on INS Vikrant (INS Vikrant LIFT: Touch and Go for F-18, Near impossible for Rafale M) it was clear what can be operated on the two large elevators.
INS Vikramaditya is a modified Kiev-class aircraft carrier and the flagship of the Indian Navy has two aircraft elevators as seen above picture but instead of being located on the starboard edge of the deck like on INS Vikrant, they are instead located within the flight deck. One is near the Aircraft carrier superstructure and the other is just ahead of it.
INS Vikramaditya has elevators with dimensions of 18.8M(L) x 9.9M(W) which means F-18 E/F Super hornet that is 18.38M(L) and 9.93M(W) with folded wings will be able to use elevators but not before pylons are removed and still will be a close call to move to the lower decks. Rafale M which has dimensions of 15.27M(L) and 10.90M(W) again fails to be used on both aircraft carrier lifts.
Both Aircraft carriers were designed around an air wing of MiG-29Ks and Naval LCA and both Lift dimensions can support both of this jets and will be compatible with future deck-based indigenous Twin Engine Deck Based Fighter (TEDBF) that has a wingspan of 11.2M but after it is folded it becomes 7.6M and has a length of 16.30M.
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