Indo-US panel on aircraft carrier to meet later this month

The Indo-US Joint Working Group on Aircraft Carrier Cooperation will meet here later this month to discuss design and construction aspects of India's next indigenous aircraft carrier - Vishal.
A top US Navy officer, currently on a visit to India, expressed satisfaction with the progress in talks on the aircraft carrier project.
The joint working group had last met along the eastern coast of US on August 12-14, 2015.
"We are making very good progress. I am very pleased with the progress to date and optimistic (that) we can do more in the future. That is on a very solid track," chief of US Naval Operations John Richardson told reporters here today.

India, which has always used "ski-jump" at the end of the flight deck to fly the planes off its carrier, is interested in US's electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS).
This means that the aircraft will gain its take-off velocity through an electromagnetic rail gun instead of the conventional steam-driven catapults.

The US Navy's latest carrier, the 100,000-tonne USS Gerald R Ford, which will be commissioned later this year, is the world's only carrier featuring EMALS.
"All of those things are on the table. There are possibilities," Richardson said when asked about EMALS for India.
The Indian team had visited aircraft carrier Ford, currently under construction at Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia, and received briefs on US Navy management of aircraft carrier programmes.

They had also met with senior Pentagon officials, and toured the US Navy's research and development facilities for aircraft carrier launch and recovery systems as a first step to exploring opportunities for cooperation.
The Joint Working Group on Aircraft Carrier Technology Cooperation, co-chaired by US Navy's Program Executive Officer for Aircraft Carriers, Rear Admiral Tom Moore, and India's Controller for Warship Production and Acquisition, Vice Admiral G S Pabby, is part of the larger Indo-US Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI).