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India's New Sea Beast - INS VIKRANT

India's first indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC) Vikrant, the largest warship to be built in the country, has completed its crucial sea trials and is scheduled to enter the services in less than a year. The carrier is named after  INS Vikrant, India's first aircraft carrier which was decommissioned in 1997.

Many experts believe that an aircraft carrier is necessary for a navy as well as a nation to be capable of projecting strength and power across the high seas. Since the carrier is a valuable and sometimes vulnerable target, it is usually escorted into the group by destroyers, missile cruisers, frigates, submarines, and supply ships.

As of now, only five or six nations have the capability to build an aircraft carrier and India is now joining this elite club. Experts and naval officials said India has demonstrated the ability and self-reliance to build one of the most advanced and complex battleships in the world.

The previous aircraft carriers in India were built by the British or the Russians. INS Vikramaditya, currently the only aircraft carrier in the Navy entered service in 2013 was a Soviet Aircraft Carrier known as Admiral Gorshkov. Apart from that the country's two previous aircraft carriers, INS Vikrant and INS Viraat were originally British-made HMS Hercules and HMS Hermes before entering service in the Navy in 1961 and 1987 respectively.

IAC-1 was designed by the Indian Navy's DND (Directorate of Naval Design) and built by Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL), a public shipyard company owned by the Ministry of Shipping.

The IAC is 262 meters long, 62 wide, and 59 meters high. It has 14 decks, five of which are in the superstructure, 2,300 compartments, and offers space for 1,700 crew members, including female officers.

According to the Navy, more than 76% of the material and equipment aboard the IAC1 is domestic, including 23,000 tons of steel, 2,500 km of electrical cables, 150 km of pipes and 2,000 valves, and a wide range of finished products including rigid hull boats, kitchen appliances, air conditioning, and Cooling systems as well as rudder systems.

The Navy also added that more than 50 Indian manufacturers were directly involved in the project, and around 2,000 Indians were given direct employment on board the IAC1 every day. The navy also added that more than 40,000 others were indirectly employed.
The Navy estimated that approximately 80 to 85 percent of the project cost was approximately 23,000 crores.

The Navy has not released any details about the weapons and aircraft INS Vikrant will be carrying. The new warship, however, is comparable to India's current aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya, which is a 44,500-ton ship and can carry up to 34 aircraft including fighter jets and helicopters.

Previously the navy had said that once commissioned, IAC1 will be "the strongest naval asset" operating the Russian-made MiG29K fighter jet and the Kamov31 Air early warning helicopters already in service in Vikramaditya.

The new Vikrant will also include the MH60R Seahawk multipurpose helicopter from US defense and space company Lockheed Martin which will be inducted in the Navy soon and the Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) from Bengaluru-based Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.

It's a proud moment for every Indian and let's hope we make great progress in the future by manufacturing more Indigenously built defense equipment and war machines and decrease our foreign reliability.

Vikrant is just the beginning. Yet more to come in near future.



   RONIT SINGH

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