New Delhi, Jan 9: India’s first Indigenous Aircraft Carrier Vikrant is out for the another set of sea trial before being inducted, Indian Navy said.
On successful completion of a series of progressive sea trials, the ship is scheduled to be commissioned into the Indian Navy as INS Vikrant later this year. With the delivery of IAC, India would join a select group of nations with the capability to indigenously design and build an Aircraft Carrier.
“While the maiden sea trials in August last year were to establish propulsion, navigational suite and basic operations, the second sea trial later in October-November witnessed the ship being put through its paces in terms of various machinery trials and flight trials,” the Indian Navy said in a statement here.
Recently, the President and the Vice President visited the gigantic ship within a span of less than two weeks.
The ship, in fact, was out for 10 days, proving its sustenance in the very second sortie. Various seamanship evolutions were also successfully cleared during the second sortie.
Having gained adequate confidence in the ship’s abilities, the IAC now sails to undertake complex maneuvers to establish specific readings of how the ship performs in various conditions, the Indian Navy said.
Scientists from DRDO’s Naval Science and Technological Laboratory would also be embarked during the trials. In addition, various sensor suites of the ship would also be tested.
With large number of indigenous materials such as steel, other equipment and systems manufactured by Indian industrial houses and about 100 MSMEs, the indigenous content in construction of IAC is close to 76 per cent of overall project cost of Rs 19341 crore.
The Indian Navy said the ship has been able to carry out basic flying operations from its very first sortie itself is a landmark in Indian warship construction history.
The Indigenous Aircraft Carrier is 262 m long, 62 m at the widest part and height of 59 m, including the superstructure. There are 14 decks in all, including five in the superstructure. The ship has over 2,300 compartments, designed for a crew of around 1700 people.
The IAC, designed by Indian Navy’s Directorate of Naval Design (DND), is being built at Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL), a Public Sector Shipyard under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways.
