KOCHI: She is a majestic tiger, albeit without teeth at the moment. She will turn menacing as she steadily grows fangs over the next one year, getting ready to prowl and snarl on the high seas.
The 45,000-tonne indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC), the largest-ever warship to be built in India for about Rs 20,000 crore at the Cochin Shipyard, is fully sea-worthy to be commissioned as INS Vikrant by PM Narendra Modi on September 2.
But the IAC will become fully combat-ready after the MiG-29K supersonic fighter jets complete crucial flight trials from her sprawling deck, and she is equipped with all her high-tech weapons like the Israeli-origin 80-km range Barak-8 surface-to-air missile systems, by around mid-2023.
With trials of the Dhruv, Sea King and Chetak helicopters already over, the IAC is now gearing up for the MiG-29K trials to begin in October-November. Trials of the new submarine-hunting MH-60 “Romeo” helicopters acquired from the US as well as the Russian-origin early-warning Kamov-31 choppers are also in the works.
“In the first sortie itself during the extensive sea trials of the IAC, we had 22 helicopter touchdowns on the deck. Gradually, we will up her fighter integration and fleet integration… Will happen sooner rather than later,” IAC captain Commodore Vidhyadhar Harke told TOI on Wednesday.
The inherent strength of a carrier battle group (CBG) is the ability to detect and neutralize emerging threats from far away. A CBG can also move over 400 nautical miles in a day to project raw combat power and ‘visible deterrence’ over a large area.
It’s no wonder China is now building its fourth aircraft carrier after ‘launching’ its third, the over 80,000-tonne Fujian, in June. China, however, is relatively new to the highly-complex art of operating fighters from carriers. India, in contrast, has operated ‘flat-tops’ since the induction of the first carrier INS Vikrant from the UK in 1961.
With the IAC taking her name, the 1,700-member crew is raring to go. “The IAC will significantly enhance our naval capability for sea control and to protect crucial sea lines of communication, in keeping with India’s upward trajectory in economic growth,” Commodore Harke said.
The 262-meter long and 15-storey high IAC, with a flight deck comparable to two football fields with an angled ski-jump, is quite an engineering and ship-building marvel. India has now joined a select group of countries like the US, Russia, China, France and UK that can indigenously design, build and integrate an aircraft carrier.
“It’s a momentous achievement. With an overall indigenous content of 76%, the IAC is more than five to seven times the size of any warship ever built in India,” Cochin Shipyard CMD Madhu S Nair said.
The common refrain is that the IAC is far superior to India’s existing aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya, which was acquired from Russia for $2.33 billion in November 2013, with another $2 billion being spent on 45 MiG-29Ks, on several counts ranging from propulsion to flying operations.
For instance, the IAC has two ‘ship-side’ aircraft lifts to haul up the fighters and helicopters to the flight deck as compared to the ‘internal lifts’ of INS Vikramaditya. “The ship-side lifts, which have a capacity of 30-tonne each, do not disrupt flying operations,” flight deck officer Lt-Commander Divyansh Singh said.
Once a fighter is on the flight deck, it can take off within a few seconds. “The IAC has a capacity to carry around 30 fighters and choppers in different configurations depending on the mission,” said Lt-Commander Ajay Singh, a MiG-29K pilot.
“It is easy to land on a normal airfield. This is a floating airfield with limited space, and it moves up-and-down with the ship rolling and pitching. I am eagerly waiting for the day I land and take-off from this flight deck,” he added.
That day is not too far off. The IAC, as INS Vikrant, will represent sovereign Indian territory cruising on the high seas, with the capability to swiftly turn into an formidable offensive platform by unleashing her fighters and other weapons against enemies in a jiffy.
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