INS Vikrant Aircraft Carrier (IAC)

[plugwater]

India's first IAC likely to be wet by the end of the year

India's first indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC) is likely to be wet by the end of the year, according to sources.

This will mark the culmination of the first phase of construction of the carrier, being built at the Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL) for the Indian Navy. With this, India will also join the elite club of nations capable of designing and building carriers upwards of 40,000 tonnes. The ship was scheduled to be wet in 2010.

The second phase will cover all balance work till the delivery of the ship to the Navy in end-2014. The keel was laid in February 2009. After the government sanctioned design and construction in January 2003, the yard commenced steel cutting in April 2005. Construction work on the blocks of the ship commenced in November 2006. CSL is using high-strength steel developed in-house with the help of Defence Research & Development Organisation and Steel Authority of India Ltd. Italy's Fincantieri helped in propulsion system integration, while Russia's NDB assisted in aviation aspects.
Designed by the Navy's Design Organisation, the 260-metre-long and 60-metre-wide ship will be able to handle a mix of MiG-29K, Ka31 and indigenous light combat aircraft. It will be propelled by two shafts, each coupled to two LM2500 gas turbines, developing a total power of 80 Mw, sufficient to attain a cruising speed of 28 knots. It has an endurance of around 8,000 nm. It will have two take-off runways and a landing strip with three arrester wires. It can carry 30 aircraft, with adequate hangar capacity.

There will be a long-range surface-to-air missile system, with multi-function radars and close-in weapon systems. The ship will be equipped with the most modern C/D band early air warning radar, V/UHF tactical air navigational and direction finding systems. It will also have jamming capabilities over the expected electromagnetic environment, along with carrier control approach radars, to aid air operations.

To optimise the on build period, the defence ministry has already advanced Rs 200 crore to CSL to augment infrastructure in areas such as large cranes, workshops, heavy duty machinery, etc.

Separately, the shipping ministry through the Planning Commission sanctioned Rs 98.6 crore for the creation of a small ship division, so that commercial shipbuilding can be continued during the pendency of the IAC Project.

India's first IAC likely to be wet by the end of the year

 

[Pintu]

Gulf Times – Qatar's top-selling English daily newspaper - India

Indigenous aircraft carrier to be launched in December: Antony


IANS/New Delhi


The construction of India's first indigenous aircraft carrier at Cochin is expected to be completed in December this year, after which the warship will be launched, Defence Minister A K Antony said yesterday.
In a written reply to questions in the Lok Sabha, Antony said the Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) had completed 75% of the hull work on the carrier, which is also known as the Air Defence Ship. "Regarding the Air Defence Ship being constructed at CSL, 75% of hull work has been completed and is expected to be launched in December 2011, after which further works will be undertaken prior to commissioning," Antony said.
He said the augmentation of infrastructure at CSL was in progress and Indian-made hull quality steel was now available that will reduce the country's dependence on foreign sources.
"With the infrastructure and experience, indigenous aircraft carrier-sized ships can be built at CSL. Additionally, Indian-manufactures warship quality steel is now available, which will reduce dependence on foreign countries," he said.
Declaring India's intention of having at least two carrier task forces with aircraft carrier warships as the pivot of such battle groups, Antony said the country should be capable of deploying them on two locations soon.
"To maintain effective presence in our area of interest, Indian Navy should be capable of deploying carrier task forces in two geographically separated locations," he said. The navy already operates the Centaur-class INS Viraat aircraft carrier. The refit and modernisation works on board the INS Vikramaditya, formerly Russian Navy aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, are progressing in an earnest manner, the minister said.
"Consequent to signing of supplementary agreements in March 2010, the Russian side has increased the manpower and material resources considerably for the (Vikramaditya) project. A majority of the equipment and systems have been installed on board the ship. The delivery of the ship is scheduled in December 2012," he added.

 

[agentperry]

after launching in december it will under go fitting and fine tuning which will be followed by harbor and sea trail so in a way it will be comabt ready by end of 2013. btw we are also getting ins vikramaditya in dec 2012.
this is scare a shit out of pakis as by 2015, 3 carriers in Indian navy.

 

[Kunal Biswas]

after launching in december it will under go fitting and fine tuning which will be followed by harbor and sea trail so in a way it will be comabt ready by end of 2013. btw we are also getting ins vikramaditya in dec 2012.
this is scare a shit out of pakis as by 2015, 3 carriers in Indian navy.

Virrat`s harriers are enough for PN fleet ( Looking at their fleet/warship Air defense ) the are extremely vulnerable in open seas..

 

[agentperry]

Virrat`s harriers are enough for PN fleet ( Looking at their fleet/warship Air defense ) the are extremely vulnerable in open seas..

indian ocean is getting multi dimensional. chinese now have anti-carrier BM and and a big carrier too. i wont be surprise if some how pakis too test a anti-carrier BM ( u know how). moreover in case of war to completely break down paki moral like prompt attack leaving gwadar and karachi burning like hell.

 

[warriorextreme]

indian ocean is getting multi dimensional. chinese now have anti-carrier BM and and a big carrier too. i wont be surprise if some how pakis too test a anti-carrier BM ( u know how). moreover in case of war to completely break down paki moral like prompt attack leaving gwadar and karachi burning like hell.

i saw on NDTV international agenda that china is already deploying DF-21 in pakistan..

 

[hit&run]

i saw on NDTV international agenda that china is already deploying DF-21 in pakistan..

Then its a crisis, an act of war.
.
and
.
GoI is clueless as usual busy making people of India more and more 'chutiyas' only.

 

[agentperry]

china will be deploying few of its assets in pakland so that if anything like 1971 arises then at least pakis have something to offer resistance with. i these cases AAD and PAD will come into play and not carrier based SAMs. moreover crushing pak will not be easy but defeating it will not that be difficult. baluch resistance should be helped to extent that they dont form another country and baluch infiltration into pak army should be increased. moreover i know what happened to mehran and pak-us rel. pak-china will meet same fate.

 

[Rahul Singh]

Google Earth 1/11 updated pic does show considerable progress. I can see elevators space, though can not say so for sure.

A year old pic for comparison.

 

[DMF]

SO the Indian defense minister made a declaration that Indian indigenous carrier will be lunched end of 2011, very good news, I can not wait to see it. Democracy of India is much better than the dictatorship of China, China government not let the people learn anything, so lot of rumors in the Chinese forums. Some rumors say China's indigenous carrier already under construction, the year of 2012 it will show up because the big size, not easy to hide up. If this true, then the India side should work a bit fast, maybe the Chinese indigenous carrier will get in the service earlier.

 

[sandeepdg]

i saw on NDTV international agenda that china is already deploying DF-21 in pakistan..

I think its more of propaganda. I won't believe it till I see concrete evidence.

 

[ace009]

SO the Indian defense minister made a declaration that Indian indigenous carrier will be lunched end of 2011, very good news, I can not wait to see it. Democracy of India is much better than the dictatorship of China, China government not let the people learn anything, so lot of rumors in the Chinese forums. Some rumors say China's indigenous carrier already under construction, the year of 2012 it will show up because the big size, not easy to hide up. If this true, then the India side should work a bit fast, maybe the Chinese indigenous carrier will get in the service earlier.

Just because PLAN will commission it's carrier earlier than IN does not mean it will be of much benefit - remember, this will be the first carrier being operated by PLAN in the open seas - although they have trained their sailors in the carriers bought from Russia (and one from Australia), they were non-functional hulls - rather than actually active carriers. IN on the other hand has 50+ years of experience with carrier operation. Training of personnel is the biggest asset in modern military - technology can help, but comes second.

As Folklands campaign has shown a well-trained pilot in a harrier can shoot down real jets piloted by not-so well trained pilots of an airforce.

 

[sesha_maruthi27]

I agree with ace009. It takes immense experience to make proper use of an air-craft carrier. It cannot be achieved by just doing a practice drill on dummies. It is also tough to gain experience. It takes years to develop the experience of using an air-craft carrier.

 

[ace009]

However, once PLAN has a couple of carriers in their tally they can then train their personnel and in a decade or so can be a force to reckon with. So, we would expect to see some PLAN on IN carrier action post 2025 - maybe in the South China sea or in the IOR.
IN should have 3-4 carriers with at least a couple of CATOBAR by then with a N-MMRCA suitable to the carriers.

 

[DMF]

Ha, I am talking about China's own indigenous carrier maybe can get in service earlier than yours one which now under construction. The one from Australia already melt down long time ago. The unfinished one from Ukraine is only a training and research platform. The Chinese government does not like to give any information what is going on, I see some rumors in Chinese military forum that already two indigenous Carrier under work, and also say that in the year of 2012, some photo will be posted on the internet, because by then the size of the carrier will be too big to hide away.
The rumor also goes on as pilots already under training on the ground, and J15 already under production, the total will be 60pcs, and Shenyong airplane co. will produce advance Navy carrier air fighters, also two sets of catapults ready, all this are rumors, haha
But Indian friends here think China's carrier will take long time to operate, but I doubt your judgment, because nobody ever give a correct judgment about the Varyag. Varyag repaint and will goes for test again, somebody say will have a plane skip test, you will see who long a air plane will take off and land on the carrier.

 

[ace009]

Ha, I am talking about China's own indigenous carrier maybe can get in service earlier than yours one which now under construction. The one from Australia already melt down long time ago. The unfinished one from Ukraine is only a training and research platform. The Chinese government does not like to give any information what is going on, I see some rumors in Chinese military forum that already two indigenous Carrier under work, and also say that in the year of 2012, some photo will be posted on the internet, because by then the size of the carrier will be too big to hide away.
The rumor also goes on as pilots already under training on the ground, and J15 already under production, the total will be 60pcs, and Shenyong airplane co. will produce advance Navy carrier air fighters, also two sets of catapults ready, all this are rumors, haha
But Indian friends here think China's carrier will take long time to operate, but I doubt your judgment, because nobody ever give a correct judgment about the Varyag. Varyag repaint and will goes for test again, somebody say will have a plane skip test, you will see who long a air plane will take off and land on the carrier.

dude - you don;t understand the point - do you?

"Operating" a carrier is not the same as operating it well. The Isarel-Arab conflict is a case in point. Although the Arabs had MORE fighters and at times more advanced ones, the Israelis outfought them because of training and strategy. I am not comparing that directly between IN and PLAN, but imagine PLAN against USN. the USN will eat the PLAN carrier battle group for lunch because of their training, even if the PLAN had the same equipment. Now imagine IN with 50 years of experience in carriers vs PLAn with "some" experience - what do you think the outcome is going to be?

 

[sandeepdg]

dude - you don;t understand the point - do you?

"Operating" a carrier is not the same as operating it well. The Isarel-Arab conflict is a case in point. Although the Arabs had MORE fighters and at times more advanced ones, the Israelis outfought them because of training and strategy. I am not comparing that directly between IN and PLAN, but imagine PLAN against USN. the USN will eat the PLAN carrier battle group for lunch because of their training, even if the PLAN had the same equipment. Now imagine IN with 50 years of experience in carriers vs PLAn with "some" experience - what do you think the outcome is going to be?

I think he isn't wired to understand intelligent stuff, mate. He just didn't get the gist of what you explained.

 

[DMF]

My Indian friends here, I only got some rumors about China's carrier program, the damn Chinese government not give a light to the folks, so only of rumors and guesses in the Chinese military forums, I just got some of them, but "no photo, no truth", two indigenous carriers will show up in 2012, the training already started some where on the ground, it was said that the military asked the carriers to be battle ready on 2020, about 8-9 years from now, maybe lot of things will happen and the progress can not be very smooth, but Chinese matters are always beyond Indian friends expectation, nobody of you have expected that Varyag will be refitted and can went for a sea trail, right? 8years is a very long time for China. the CCP is a dictatorship and has a system, the military industry is inside this system, the cadres and officers if failed, they lost their face and political future, you know, when they need something to be done in time, most of the case it will be done.

 

[ace009]

DMF - I feel for you. I admire China in some ways for their never say die attitude and getting things done no matter what. I have many chinese friends and I admire them a lot.
But, I just do not trust or like the CCP leadership. They have been saying something and doing exactly the opposite. They have been claiming the neighboring areas citing various historical "chinese" Kingdoms. Tibet from 500 years back, Manchuria from 300 years back, Indochina from a thousand years back. Whenever and wherever it has suited them they have claimed a part of neighboring land citing some arcane and old Chinese Kingdom. I am surprised that they have not claimed Siberia, Mongolia and Eastern Europe from the days of Chenghis Khan!
But humor aside, CCP has been making claims on Indian territory for the last 60 years. They have signed several treaties with India and then forgot to honor them on multiple occasions. They have feigned friendship with us and then supplied Pakistan with key military technologies. Which is why we find it hard to trust them ...

 

[agentperry]

when CAG said that gorshkov purchase is one sided looting, IN chief told India in press conference that you get me a carrier in 10K crores and im ready to sign away cheque anytime. the IAC is of same tonnage and is at 1/3 price. Indian Defence is a fatty pie.