On September 2, 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi commissioned the first indigenously designed and built aircraft carrier, Indian Naval Ship Vikrant (INS Vikrant), at the Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL), in Kochi. Largest Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) ever built in India’s maritime history, INS Vikrant was built at a cost of approximately Rs 20,000 crore. INS Vikrant would strengthen the country’s standing as a ‘Blue Water Navy’—maritime force with global reach and capability to operate even over deep seas. The INS Vikrant would have the pennant number R11, and the motto “Jayema Sam Yudhi Sprdhah“, a quote from the Rigveda, which means ‘I conquer/defeat those who fight against me’.
Ships are identified by pennant numbers in the Royal Navy and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth of Nations. Earlier, naval ships flew a flag that identified a flotilla or type of vessel. For instance, the Royal navy used a red burgee for torpedo boats and a pennant with an H for torpedo boat.
INS Vikrant would contribute to ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and Indian Ocean region. Now, India has also joined the elite group of nations including the US, Russia, France, the UK, and China, who have the niche capability of indigenously designing and constructing aircraft carriers. The seventh largest among the carriers or carrier classes in the world, INS Vikrant is capable of displacing 43,000 tonnes of seawater when fully loaded.
The other six largest aircraft carriers are—USS Gerald R. Ford Class (CVN-78), USS Nimitz (CVN-68), UK’s Queen Elizabeth-class, Chinese Kuznetsov-class Liaoning, and Shandong, and Russian Kuznetsov-class Admiral Kuznetsov.
Thus, the construction of the IAC has proved the fact that India now has the capacity to make warship grade steel at Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), in collaboration with the Defence Research Development Laboratory (DRDL).
Historical Background
The HMS Hercules was an incomplete aircraft carrier in the British Royal Navy in 1943, during World War II. She remained incomplete as the war ended in 1946, and the work on the ship was suspended. After the war, the UK and the US navies wanted to sell the ship as they no longer needed her. Hence, in 1957, the Indian Government purchased HMS Hercules, renamed her as INS Vikrant, and commissioned her into the Indian Navy on March 4, 1961, in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland. The ship formally joined the Indian Navy in the Bombay harbour on November 3, 1961, and was received by the then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru at Ballar Pier.
The ship played an active role during the liberation of the Bangladesh War in 1971. The aircraft carrier was decommissioned on January 31, 1997, after 36 years of its service. It was then converted into a museum-ship and remained berthed at the Bombay harbour, open to the public. Due to the rising maintenance cost and poor condition, she was finally scrapped in November 2014.
Salient Features
INS Vikrant has around 76 per cent indigenous contents, and around 80–85 per cent of the cost of the ship has been ploughed back into the Indian economy. Designed by the in-house Warship Design Bureau (WDB) of the Indian Navy, INS Vikrant was built by the CSL. It produces electricity that is sufficient to supply power to around 5,000 households. The indigenous equipment and machinery were provided by major industrial houses of the country including Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd (GRSE), Keltron, Kirloskar, Larsen & Toubro, Wartsila India, etc., as well as over 100 micro, small & medium enterprises (MSMEs).
The INS Vikrant has 14 decks with more than 2,300 compartments that has the capacity to carry around 1,500 sea warriors, including 200 officers. The 18-floor vessel has special cabins for women naval officers and sailors. The ship is powered by four gas turbines with a total power of 88 megawatt (MW). It has a maximum speed of 28 knots, and has a cruising speed of 18 knots (knot is a unit of speed, equal to one nautical mile per hour, exactly 1.852 km/h). The ship has an endurance of 7,500 nautical miles (about 14,000 km). Using an aircraft-operation mode called as Short Take off But Arrested Recovery (STOBAR), INS Vikrant is equipped with a ski-jump for launching aircraft. It has a set of three ‘arrestor wires’ for their recovery onboard.
In its fully operational mode, INS Vikrant would have an air wing consisting of 30 aircrafts, comprising Russian-origin, carrier-capable MiG-29K fighter jets and airborne early warning control helicopter Kamov-31 helicopters, and US origin MH-60R multi-role helicopters, besides indigenous Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH) and Light Combat Aircraft (LCA)-Tejas (Navy).
INS Vikrant is 262 metres long and 62 metres wide. Its flight deck is bigger than two football fields. The aviation hangar is about the size of two Olympic-size pools with an accommodation of around 20 aircrafts. Not only that, there is a well-equipped kitchen that could serve a diverse menu with a unit that makes 3,000 rotis per hour. The medical complex of INS Vikrant has a 16-bed hospital along with a modular emergency operation theatre, physiotherapy clinic, intensive care unit (ICU), pathology set-up, radiology wing with a CT scanner and X-Ray machines, a dental complex, an isolation ward, and telemedicine facilities.
Way Forward
The government is planning to procure and equip INS Vikrant with 26 either Boeing-manufactured F/A-18 Super Hornets or the Dassault-manufactured Rafale multirole fighter aircrafts. These aircrafts would be a stop-gap arrangement until the indigenously designed and built twin-engine deck-based fighter is ready as expected by around 2032.
With the commissioning of INS Vikrant, India would have two operational aircraft carriers, which would bolster the maritime security of the nation. India already has an aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya (R33), a platform that was refurbished and procured from Russia.
The Navy is also preparing for another IAC which would be named as INS Vishal with a proposed displacement capacity of around 65,000 tonnes, equalling the Queen Elizabeth-class of carriers of the UK. The idea is for India to have two carriers at any given point in time, if a third one is in the refit.
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