India's first indigenous aircraft carrier Vikrant delivered to Navy

Visakhapatnam: Indian Navy created maritime history on 28 July by taking delivery of the country's first indigenous aircraft carrier Vikrant from her builder Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL), Kochi.

Designed by the Indian Navy's in-house Directorate of Naval Design (DND) and built by CSL, a public sector shipyard under the ministry of shipping, the carrier is christened after her illustrious predecessor, India's first aircraft carrier which played a vital role in the 1971 war.

The 262 mtr long carrier has a full displacement of close to 45,000 tonnes which is much larger and more advanced than her predecessor. The ship is powered by four gas turbines totalling 88 MW power and has a maximum speed of 28 Knots. It was built at an overall cost of close to Rs. 20,000 crores. It has an overall indigenous content of 76%.

With the delivery of Vikrant, India has joined a select group of nations having the niche capability to indigenously design and build an aircraft carrier.

Vikrant has been built with a high degree of automation for machinery operation, ship navigation, and survivability, and has been designed to accommodate an assortment of fixed wing and rotary aircraft. The ship would be capable of operating air wing consisting of 30 aircraft comprising of MIG-29K fighter jets, Kamov-31, MH-60R multi-role helicopters, in addition to indigenously manufactured Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH) and Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) (Navy). Using a novel aircraft-operation mode known as STOBAR (Short Take- Off but Arrested Landing), the IAC is equipped with a ski- jump for launching aircraft, and a set of 'arrester wires' for their recovery onboard.

The ship has large number of indigenous equipment and machinery, involving major industrial houses in the country like BEL, BHEL, GRSE, Keltron, Kirloskar, Larsen & Toubro, Wartsila India, etc., as well as over 100 MSMEs.

Delivery of Vikrant was marked by the signing of acceptance documents on behalf of the Indian Navy by the Commanding Officer Designate of Vikrant, representatives of Naval Headquarters and Warship Overseeing Team (Kochi) and by the chairman and managing director on behalf of Cochin Shipyard Ltd. in the presence of senior officers of Indian Navy and Cochin Shipyard.

Vikrant has been delivered to the Indian Navy by CSL following extensive user acceptance trials conducted between August 2021 and July 2022 during which the ship's performance, including hull, main propulsion, PGD, auxiliary equipment, aviation facilities, weapon and sensors as well as sea keeping and manoeuvring capabilities were proved satisfactory in accordance with trial protocols and system parameters.

The indigenous aircraft carrier will soon be commissioned into the Indian Navy as Indian Naval Ship (INS) Vikrant which would bolster India's position in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and its quest for a blue water Navy.