India kicks off work on first aircraft carrier

The navy’s long-standing dream of operating two powerful carrier battle groups, to project power as well as act as a stabilising influence in the Indian Ocean Region and beyond, went a step closer to reality on Saturday, with the keel of the first indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC) being laid at the Cochin shipyard. “It’s a crucial milestone, which will transform India into an aircraft carrier-building nation. The IAC, to be delivered in 2014, will enhance the navy’s blue-water capabilities. We hope to operate two-three carriers simultaneously in the not-to-distant future,’’ said defence minister A K Antony. Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta said: “With this programme, India has joined a select group of just four nations (US, Russia, UK and France) capable of designing and building a 40,000-tonne aircraft carrier.’’ Ironically, for a country that fancies itself as an emerging global power, India does not have an operational aircraft carrier right now. Present just a small distance away from where the keel of the IAC was laid was the country’s solitary aircraft carrier, the 28,000-tonne INS Viraat, docked while undergoing another life-extension refit at Cochin shipyard. Sources said the refit on the 50-year-old ageing ship would be completed by July, which will then be followed by a two-month of trials off Mumbai before it can be ‘fully-operational’. The navy is not going to get Russian carrier Admiral Gorshkov anytime before 2012-2013, especially with India and Russia yet to resolve the row over cost escalation. Russia is asking for $2 billion over and above the original $1.5 billion package deal signed in January 2004. The IAC’s keel-laying marks an important step in India’s quest to build its own carriers, even though it has come after a long delay. Antony indicated that India would go in for a larger 64,000-tonne second IAC after the first one gets going. The eventual plan is to have nuclear-powered carriers as their “sea endurance’’ is virtually limitless compared to conventional ones. The 260-metre-long first IAC will be able to carry 12 MiG-29Ks, eight Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA) and 10 helicopters like anti-submarine and maritime reconnaissance Kamov-31s on its 2.5-acre flight deck and hangars. With a crew of 160 officers and 1,400 sailors, the IAC will have an endurance of around 8,000 nautical miles and be capable of speed in excess of 28 knots. It will have two runways with ski-jumps and a landing strip with three “arrester’’ wires for STOBAR (short take-off, arrested recovery) operations. “Of the required 18,000 tonnes of steel, developed by DRDO and SAIL, we have already fabricated 8,100 tonnes. The IAC is divided into 873 blocks, of which 455 are now ready for grand assembly,’’ said Cochin shipyard chief Commodore (retd) M Jitendran.