An ‘exceptional symbol of reliance and aspirational India’, INS Vikrant was commissioned into the Navy in a ceremony at the Cochin Shipyard on Friday, September 2. The commissioning ceremony of the aircraft carrier had in attendance Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh among others. The induction of reincarnated Vikrant is a major step toward strengthening the defence preparedness, here’s how:-
What does INS Vikrant represent for India?
# INS Vikrant, India’s first indigenous aircraft, was designed by the Indian Navy’s Warship Design Bureau (WDB) and built by Cochin Shipyard Limited, a Public Sector shipyard under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways. With INS Vikrant, India joins an elite group of nations that can build their own aircraft carriers, including the United States, Russia, France, the United Kingdom, and China.
# While the first aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya, was purchased from Russia and commissioned in 2013, the second aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, was built entirely in India. There is also talk of naming the third ship INS Vishal.
# When fully loaded, INS Vikrant will be the seventh largest carrier or carrier class in the world. The largest is the USS Gerald R Ford Class (CVN-78), followed by the Nimitz Class (USA), Queen Elizabeth Class (UK), Liaoning and Shandong, China, and Admiral Kuznetsov (Russia). To cut through choppy seas, the ship is powered by four Gas Turbines totaling 88 MW.
# It has a displacement of 43,000 tonnes and a top speed of 28 knots. It has a range of 7500 nautical miles. This is far superior to INS Vikramaditya, which has a capacity of over 8,000 tonnes of LSHSD and a range of over 7,000 nautical miles (13,000 kilometres).
# It is designed to house 1600 crew members across 14 floors and 24 compartments. It has a dedicated kitchen. There will also be a medical wing with 16 operational beds, a modular emergency operation theatre, a physiotherapy clinic, an Intensive Care Unit, a pathology setup, a radiology wing with a CT scanner and X-Ray machines, a dental complex, an isolation ward, and telemedicine facilities to help members recover quickly in emergency situations.
# INS Vikrant can operate Short Take-Off but Arrested Landing (STOBAR) craft thanks to its ski-jump ramp technology, which includes two take-off runways and a landing strip with three arrester wires. The carrier will have 30 aircraft, including Russian-origin, carrier-capable MiG-29K fighter jets and airborne early warning control helicopter Kamov-31 helicopters, as well as US-origin MH-60R multi-role helicopters.
# INS Vikrant, a Rs 20,000 crore aircraft carrier, has returned 80-85 percent of its cost to the Indian economy, with complete indigenous construction, 76% indigenous content, and employment for 2,000 CSL personnel.
# When fully operational, the mighty aircraft carrier will not only be a formidable deterrent, but will also serve as a floating airbase on blue waters and an Indian sovereign territory in the middle of the ocean. The addition of INS Vikrant will help India compete with China, which already has about two and a half aircraft carriers.
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