On Friday, officials announced that INS Vikrant, India’s indigenous aircraft carrier, had joined the Western Fleet in the Arabian Sea, thereby significantly increasing the Navy’s maritime capabilities.
INS Vikrant was inducted by the Carrier Battle Group, which was led by INS Vikramaditya, through a multi-domain exercise and twin Carrier fighter operations in the Arabian Sea. This provided the Navy’s ‘Sword Arm’ with an advantage.
The INS Vikrant, the Navy’s fourth aircraft carrier, is the first to be constructed indigenously at the Cochin Shipyard Ltd. in Kochi, Kerala. It will be stationed at the naval base in Karwar, Karnataka.
A sleek 262 meters (860 feet) in length and 62 meters (203 feet) in width, the majestic aircraft carrier displaces approximately 45,000 tonnes.
It has the capacity to operate with an air group of up to 36 aircraft, which includes 26 fixed-wing combat aircraft, a variety of helicopters, and a variety of lethal weapons. Additionally, it is capable of conducting search and rescue operations.
The INS Vikrant is equipped with four GE gas turbines on two shafts, which can produce a power output of over 80MW. This is sufficient to illuminate a small city with a population of 20 lakh.
The Navy’s combat management system (CMS) was the first to be developed by a private company and was delivered to the Navy in March 2019. The CMS was developed by Tata Advanced Systems.
Alongside INS Vikramaditya, INS Vikrant is one of the two operational aircraft carriers for the Navy. It is equipped with 2,300 compartments, 1,700 sailors, a hospital complex, cabins for female officers, and approximately 8 km of corridors.
In 1999, the ship was initially authorised by the then Defence Minister, George Fernandes. The keel was laid in 2009 by the former Defence Minister, A. K. Antony, and the ship was launched in 2013. Sea trials commenced in August 2021.
INS Vikrant was commissioned to the Navy by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 2, 2022. It achieved full operational status in November 2023 and formally joined the Navy’s Western Fleet on the high seas on Friday.
The Navy hosted the Milan 2024 multinational naval exercise in February of this year, during which INS Vikrant and INS Vikramaditya participated. The concluding sea phase of the exercises was conducted on board INS Vikrant.
