India to launch indigenous aircraft carrier Monday

Its flight deck is over twice the size of a football field, its power unit can light up the entire Kochi city and the cabling is enough to cover the distance between here to Delhi. India's first indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC), to be launched here Monday, is the biggest warship to be built in the country and will make it the fifth country to have capacity to build such huge vessels.

Being built at Cochin Shipyard Limited, the IAC is expected to be a centrepiece of Indian Navy's power in the coming years and will be equipped with modern weapons systems including long range surface-to-air missiles (LR SAM) and close-in weapons system (CIWS).

The aircraft carrier will be launched into water Monday by Elizabeth Antony, wife of Defence Minister A.K. Antony. It will be redocked for erecting the island superstructure (for flight control systems) above its flight deck and the remaining underwater work.

The indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), MiG-29K combat jets and a range of helicopters will be deployed on the carrier.

The IAC, to be christened INS Vikrant, will be 260 metre in length and 60m in breadth and can attain speeds in excess of 28 knots (56 km per hour), said Commodore Saibal Sen, additional principal director, Naval Design.

"It's flight deck is over twice the size of a football field. There will be about 2,500 km of power cabling and 1,000 km of other cabling and it will have power generation capacity of 24 MW which must be the peak power load of Cochin city," Sen told IANS.

He said IAC can deploy over 30 aircraft and helicopters.

Standing majestically at the CSL here with its ski-jump (on the flight deck) giving it a muscular appeal, the IAC will have approximate displacement (weight) of 18,500 tonnes at its launch.

The warship is decorated with flags, colourful umbrellas and buntings in an apparent reflection of the joy of personnel who have strived for years to put in place its structure and install gas turbines, engines, gear box and other heavy machinery.

Major outfitting work is expected to be completed by 2016 after which extensive sea trials will be conducted.

The carrier is expected to be delivered to the navy by the end of 2018.

CSL chairman Commodore K. Subramaniam said that several innovations have gone into making the warship including special grade high tensile steel and pontoons to provide additional float at the time of launch.

"IAC is a big step towards self-reliance. Only handful of countries operate such vessels and only a few who can build them," Subramaniam said.

Navy officials said India will be the fifth country after the US, Russia, Britain and France to have the capacity to design and build aircraft carriers of 40,000 tonnes and above.

The aircraft carrier has been designed by Indian Navy's design organisation.

Vice Admiral K.R. Nair, controller, Warship Production and Acquisition, said every Indian will feel a sense of pride that the country has launched an aircraft carrier.

"For people like us who have been associated with the production, the feeling (of pride) is that much more," he said.

IAC's long take-off strip will be 206 metres and short-take-off would be 145 metres. It will have a crew of about 1,450.

Officials said that Navy plans to have three aircraft carriers, one each for the seas along eastern and western coasts and one for requirements of maintenance.

Aircraft carrier Vikramaditya (Admiral Gorshkov) is expected to be delivered to the Navy by the end of this year.