MoD inks contract with Cochin Shipyard for maintaining aircraft carrier

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) signed a contract with Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) on Saturday (November 30) for repairing, maintaining and upgrading INS Vikramaditya, with that aircraft carrier having completed more than a decade in operational service.

 

“The MoD signed a contract with CSL… for Short Refit and Dry Docking (SRDD) of INS Vikramaditya at an overall cost of Rs 1207.5 crore,” the government announced on Saturday.

 

INS Vikramaditya is a 45,000-tonne aircraft carrier, built in Russia as the Admiral Gorshkov and commissioned into the Indian Navy in November 2013. After completing the current refit, INS Vikramaditya will rejoin the naval fleet with its combat capability upgraded.

 

Aircraft carriers, with their multiple systems and massive mechanical inventories are required to adhere to a strict maintenance schedule. Every year, the Vikramaditya undergoes an “assisted maintenance period” (AMP), in which a regimen of repair and maintenance tasks are carried out to ensure that the carrier remains seaworthy.

 

Every five years, each capital warship undergoes “short refit”, a 6-8 month maintenance refit that can be carried out in whichever naval base the warship happens to be.

 

In addition, about once a decade, each aircraft carrier undergoes a “medium refit” that takes it into the dry dock for 15-18 months. That is why the navy argues for three aircraft carriers in its fleet: One of them undergoing refit and the other two deployed, one each in the eastern and western coasts.

 

Large docks for medium refits

 

In case the warship is required to overhaul or upgrade major systems (e.g. engine, transmission, combat command systems), the warship is usually taken to the Karwar naval base or, in the case of aircraft carriers, to CSL.

 

CSL’s dry dock is the only one that allows carrier-sized warships to float into the dock and then balance on wooden chocks after the water is evacuated from the dock.

 

A medium refit, which is carried out once in a decade, often involves “underwater packages and hull scraping – tasks for which a very large dry dock is required.

 

It is also possible that the INS Vikramaditya’s refit also includes the retro-fitment of the Indo-Israeli long-range surface-to-air missile (LR-SAM). The LR-SAM was still under development when INS Vikramaditya was being handed over to India. 

 

“This project is an important step towards developing CSL as a “maintenance, repair and overhaul” (MRO) hub for supporting India’s industrial ecosystem. The project involves nearly 50 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and would generate employment for more than 3,500 personnel,” the MoD announced.

 

“The project will provide a major boost to Government of India's vision of "Atmanirbhar Bharat" and the Make in India initiative,” said the MoD.