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    Indian carrier Vikrant (finally) commissioned

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    The Indian Navy has accepted the INS Vikrant into its liner service today – the first ship of this class built in India. The ceremony with the participation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi took place at the Cochin Shipyard Ltd in Kochi, which has been building the ship for the past thirteen years. On the same occasion, the new flag, Bhāratīya Nau Senā, deprived of the St. George’s Cross inherited from the British, was presented.

    “Vikrant is great, powerful and huge,” Modi said. – Vikrant is well deserved. Vikrant is also unique. Vikrant is not just a warship. It is a testament to India’s hard work, talent, influence and determination in the twenty-first century. If the goals are distant, the journeys are long, and the ocean and its challenges are endless, then India’s answer is Vikrant.

    The new Vikrant (meaning ‘brave’ or ‘going forward’) was named after its predecessor who entered the Indian flag service in 1961. It was built over fifteen years earlier for the Royal Navy as HMS Hercules. The previous Vikrant participated successfully in the 1971 war. It took such a toll on the Pakistanis that they sent the Ghazi (American-type Tench) submarine to hunt it. Ghazi, however, was sunk at the entrance to the port of Visakhapatnam, and the carrier was finally abandoned in 1997. So you can see why the new Vikrant is greeted on Twitter with the hashtag #LegendIsBack – the legend is back.

    Like many other Indian arms programs (the Tejas combat plane or the Arjun tank), the construction of the native aircraft carrier faced numerous problems, which in turn resulted in new delays. It was designed in 1999, but it was only five years later that the order was officially placed and the keel was laid in 2009. The first problems arose during construction, as Russia had not delivered the high-quality steel needed for the hull structure on time.

    In 2012, further technical problems arose that delayed the ship’s handover for three years. Companies responsible for the supply of parts and assembly of the drivetrain are mainly at fault here. In 2016, the ship was visited by a US Navy commission, which concluded that it would be unfit for operational use for the next decade. In the last stage, the COVID-19 pandemic has added to the previous problems.

    Ultimately, however, with a huge effort and resources, it was possible to prepare the ship for the sea – almost exactly eight years after launching and seven years after the originally planned date of flag lift. On August 4 last year, Vikrant began sea trials. It was assumed then that the commissioning would take place in the first half of 2022.

    Vikrant is 262 meters long and 62 meters wide, with a standard displacement of about 40,000 tons. Inside, there are fourteen decks (five of which are in the superstructure) and 2,300 rooms, used by a crew of 1,700 people (there are also separate cabins for women). The aviation component is to include up to forty aircraft, including twenty-six MiG-29K fighters and a dozen or so helicopters.

    India will have a problem with the latter. Part of the tasks, including securing air operations, will certainly be performed by the domestic HAL Dhruv rotorcraft. However, machines acquired in the United States (MH-60R) and in Russia – Ka-28 (ZOP) and Ka-31 (early warning and control) will be used for more specialized tasks. Meanwhile, in May, the Indian government suspended talks with Rosoboroneksport and the Wiertolety Rossii holding on the purchase of ten Ka-31s. New Delhi is concerned both about Russia’s ability to fulfill the order and about making payments (including the currency converter), which will be hampered by sanctions after the attack on Ukraine. +

    It is not yet known if and how India and Russia will remedy this situation. But at least in the short term, it should not hurt Vikrant. There are currently fourteen Ka-31s in the Indian Navy. This is enough for two aircraft carriers – Vikrant and Vikramadityi, which has been in service since 2014. The Indians care about the flexibility and safety margin that a large helicopter fleet provides, but the lack of this margin is not an insurmountable blockade.

    The aircraft carrier is to develop a maximum speed of 28 knots and a range of approximately 7,500 nautical miles. Indians boast that it is highly automated, especially in the operation of the engine room. For self-defense, Vikrant has, or will soon have, both Israeli Barak 8 anti-aircraft missiles in vertical tubes (sixty-four chambers in total), as well as Russian AK-630 direct defense systems with 30 mm cannons and Italian 76 mm Oto Melara cannons.

    Like Vikramaditya (former Russian Admiral Gorshkov), Vikrant also represents a class of smaller aircraft carriers without catapults and using a take-off ramp instead. However, while Gorshkov was originally built to carry only vertical take-off and landing planes, and it was rebuilt into a full-blooded aircraft carrier with a ramp only for the needs of the Indians, the Vikrant was designed from the beginning in this structural system.

    However, everything indicates that the size of the lifts will not allow the use of machines larger than the MiG-i-29K. If this is the case, it puts into question the entire search process for on-board multi-role combat aircraft for the Indian Navy. India has been looking for such an aircraft for several years, the Rafale M and F / A-18E / F Block III are currently on the battlefield, but both will probably be too big for Vikrant and could only be on board the future Vishal aircraft carrier (and notwithstanding that is unsure).

    Theoretically, the Indian Navy can boast two aircraft carriers in service, but Vikramaditya is a de facto training ship that can only perform combat missions in emergency situations. Only when Vikramaditya is replaced by Vishal, the Indians will be able to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by two large airships. In such a situation, one ship may undergo repairs and train personnel while the other is on an operational cruise. Thus, the Indian navy will have the continuous capability of conducting air operations at sea.

    Of course, having an own aircraft carrier building program is quite an achievement. The only other class of ships that set the bar just as high are nuclear submarine ballistic missile carriers. For India, however, Vikrant and Vishal are neither expensive toys nor propaganda symbols (although they will, of course, be used in this role). New Delhi is looking more and more closely at the threat posed by the People’s Liberation Army Navy, which is also carrying out an ambitious – and more advanced – aircraft carrier building program. There are currently two ships in service, Liaoning and Shandong, and a third, Fujian, should fly the flag within a few years.

    See also: The only historic Desford took the last flight

    Indian Ministry of Defense

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