U.S. naval engineers say INS Vikrant won’t be operational for another decade

A group of naval engineers were in India this February to inspect INS Vikrant and they concluded that the aircraft carrier won’t be operational for another decade.

INS Vikrant being undocked at the Cochin Shipyard Limited in 2015 (05)
Indian Navy [CC BY 2.5 in or CC BY 2.5 in], via Wikimedia Commons

The shortcomings include: a limited ability to launch sorties and no defined strategy for how to use the ship in combat. It also lacked a self-defense missile system.