Commissioning of the country’s first aircraft carrier Vikrant will enhance peace, security and stability in the Indian Ocean and Indo-Pacific Region, Navy Vice Chief Vice Admiral S.N. Ghormade said on Thursday. The carrier is set to be commissioned on September 2, 2022 in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“From November we will commence landing trails which we hope to complete by middle of next year. We will put in all effort so that the aircraft carrier is operational with the aircraft and the aircraft which are available with us are the MiG-29s,” Vice Adm. Ghormade said at a press conference ahead of the commissioning. The carrier should be fully operational by end 2023, he stated.
He said that they have carried out five sets of trials since August 2021 and were extremely successful. “From the propulsion, equipment and weapons point of view, the ship is fully operational.”
However, since the full crew is not there before commissioning, all the trials cannot be done. “After commissioning, when the complete crew is there, all systems are in place, only then aircraft landing trials happen. This is true for all advanced nations,” he stated.
Designed by the Directorate of Naval Design and constructed by Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL), INS Vikrant, with a displacement of 42,800 tonnes, is powered by four General Electric engines and can carry an air wing of 30 helicopters, fighters, and UAVs. The keel was laid in 2009 and was launched in water in 2013. “Using a novel aircraft-operation mode known as Short Take Off But Arrested Recovery (STOBAR), the IAC is equipped with a ski-jump for launching aircraft, and a set of three ‘arrester wires’ for their recovery onboard,” the Navy said in statement.
The Vice Chief Adm. said that the long-term plan was to deploy the twin-engine deck-based fighter being developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, but in the interim, they are looking at procuring a jet, to be selected between the Boeing F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet and the Dassault Aviation Rafale.
The Navy has been pushing for an IAC-II, based on its force structure centered around three carriers. Making a pitch towards this, the Vice Chief Adm. said the indigenous ecosystem has been created and the stage is well set to take next step forward to build the next Aircraft Carrier indigenously so as to ensure that “expertise gained by us are utilized to the maximum in times to come.”
On the status of IAC-II, he said the Navy is in deliberations with the Defence Ministry on this.
Responding to a question on the contingency plans of the Navy in the last two years during the standoff with China in Eastern Ladakh as the lone carrier INS Vikramaditya was under refit, Vice Adm. Ghormade said the Navy and CSL worked at a fast pace to make INS Vikramaditya operational at the earliest and also to ensure that Vikrant is commissioned soon, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We also had mission-based deployments, as part of which we deployed our ships across various choke points and maintained constant surveillance. However, the additional aircraft carrier will provide increased deterrence and that is what the Navy is looking for,” he said.
On the spin-off benefits of carrier construction, Vice Adm. Ghormade said the biggest off-spin is the warship grade steel which is now being used for the construction of all warships in the country. Going forward we can export this steel to other countries, he observed. Over 500 Indian companies and 100 Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises were involved in the project, thereby generating employment opportunities for almost 15,000 personnel across various segments, including direct employment of 2,000 personnel at CSL, he added.
