The
Lockheed-Martin F-35 has popped up in what the Indian Navy says is an official impression of India's indigenous aircraft carrier, currently under construction in Kochi. Bit of a boo-boo though -- the picture above is not India's under-construction carrier, it's actually the Royal Navy's CVF (thanks Tim, for pointing that out!).
Here's the Indian Navy's document [PDF] on aircraft carriers that has the lifted image above -- and
here's the original source image. Don't know why the Navy had to use this image when it has some pretty impressive artwork of its own.
Boo-boo aside, does this say anything about how hot the Indian Navy is for the F-35? The platform's B and C variants
have been pitched to the Navy in response to an RFI earlier this year. Other aircraft on offer are navalised variants of the Gripen and Eurofighter, and the F/A-18E/F. An
earlier impression of the carrier featured Boeing F-15s operating from the ship's flight deck.
