India’s biggest aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya, which will add a new dimension to Indian Navy’s operational capabilities, reached the INS Kadamba naval base in Karwar on Tuesday night.
The warship, acquired from Russia at a cost of $2.33 billion, is likely to be homeported at the naval base next week. It is currently stationed in the mid-sea off the Karwar coast.
Three 50-T BP (Bollard Pull) tugs manufactured by Hindustan Shipyard Ltd (HSL), Visakhapatnam, will berth the mammoth warship at the base.
Defence minister AK Antony had in mid-November commissioned the completely refurbished 44,500-tonne carrier Admiral Gorshkov into the Indian Navy as INS Vikramaditya at the Sevmash shipyard in the Russian city of Severodvinsk.
India purchased the warship from Russia for about Rs.14,500 crore.
INS Vikramaditya will bridge the time gap that may come up between the INS Viraat, which will be decommissioned in the next few years, and the indigenously built aircraft carrier Vikrant, being built at the Cochin Shipyard and to be commissioned in 2018. It will help achieve the Indian Navy’s medium-term goal of operating two aircraft carriers.
With over 1,600 personnel on board, INS Vikramaditya is literally a ‘Floating City’. The carrier, helmed by Commodore Suraj Berry, took eight years to refurbish at the Russian shipyard. A modified Kiev-class carrier, it has a capacity of over 8,000 tonnes of fuel, and is capable of operations up to a range of over 7,000 nautical miles.
The 22-deck aircraft carrier will take about four months to be integrated into the Navy.
Its air wing will draw on a fleet of 45 Indian MiG-29Ks. In addition, the naval version of the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft may also be positioned onboard.
An extensive range of sensors – long-range air surveillance radars and an advanced electronic warfare suite – makes the ship capable of maintaining a surveillance bubble of over 500 km around it.
INS Vikramaditya, 60 m high and weighing 40,000 tonnes, will be the largest and heaviest operated by the Indian Navy. The 284 m-long vessel will have MiG-29K naval combat aircraft along with Kamov 31 and Kamov 28 antisubmarine warfare and maritime surveillance helicopters. The warship has been inducted into the Navy after a delay of almost five years and a cost overrun of almost $1 billion.
The ship has the ability to carry over 30 aircraft comprising an assortment of MiG 29K/Sea Harrier, Kamov 31, Kamov 28, Sea King, ALH-Dhruv and Chetak helicopters. The MiG 29K swing role fighter is the main offensive platform and provides a quantum jump for the Indian Navy’s maritime strike capability. These fourth generation air superiority fighters with a range of over 700 nm and an array of weapons.
It has an overall length of about 284 metres and a maximum beam of about 60 metres, stretching as much as three football fields put together. Standing about 20 storeys tall from keel to the highest point, it’s a sheer sight of 44,500 tonne mega structure of steel. It is equipped with state-of-theart launch and recovery systems along with aids to enable smooth operation of ship-borne aircraft
‘Vikramaditya’ (which means Strong as the Sun) is complemented by the ship’s motto – 'Strike Far, Strike Sure'
Power generation capacity on board is about 18 megawatts—enough to cater to the lighting requirement of a mini city
THE LONG JOURNEY
2005 India and Russia sign the original $947 million deal for the purchase and refit of the carrier
2013 Ship successfully completes sea trials in July 2013, aviation trials in September
Nov. 16 Defence minister AK Antony formally commissions ship
Nov. 27 Begins nonstop 8,500 nautical mile journey to Karwar in Karnataka from Severodvinsk
2014 Reaches Mumbai on January 5 and Karwar on January 7
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