I have read a lot of irrelevant crap about our history,about IIM,about RSS,and the list goes on.Guys we are talking about whether an old aircraft carrier is suitable or not 4 our navy stick 2 da topic for godssake!! Some one mentioned the kitty hawk's steam propulsion negatively. Dude the brits are switching to steam from nuclear power bcoz its quite expensive. Mind you I have nothing against Nuke propulsion.. I just feel its not a good idea to reject a ship like the kitty hawk just because its conventionally powered. Why am i supporting the kitty hawk over the russians carrier - Airpower. in my opinion ins vikramaditya will be the weakest aircraft carrier of the 21st century bcoz it will be armed with weak MIg 29 derivatives with limited range and payload because of the crappy STOBAR config. How can you compare STOBAR and steam catapults?Besides if u want to operate a proper aircraft carrier with good power projection capabilities u need steam catapults because they offer better thrust to aircraft hence better range and payload. Morever the kitty hawk will carry atleast 48 f18's in addition to 30 heli and radar AEW aircraft. The INS vikramaditya will carry 16 mig 29 k and 10 more helicopters :) U can see the diff right here. I have nothing against russians or americans unlike some racist ppl here..But it is very clear that the russians are armtwisting us unfairly. $4bill is ridiculous for a carrier like gorshkov..this shows how powerful the russian lobby is..
