The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - NationIndia's project to build a seaborne aircraft carrier of its own has been delayed by two years, raising questions on the Indian Navy's ambition to emerge as a dominant player in the Indian Ocean region. China is also keen to establish itself in this area.
About two weeks ago, the US had announced its new military policy to station more naval assets, including six aircraft carriers, in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC), being built at Cochin Shipyard Limited, is facing delay in the installation of gearboxes for the four powerful engines of the 40,000-tonne warship. As per estimates arrived at by the apex committee of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) last month, the warship can now be launched by the end of this year. This will be almost two years behind its original launch deadline of October 2010.
Once the hull of the warship is launched at the sea, the outfitting is likely to take another four years, hence the warship is expected to be delivered to the Navy only by 2016, which is two years behind its original schedule. Defence Minister AK Antony had laid its keel in February 2009.
In January this year, the under-construction ship was taken out of the dry dock and stationed in the waters without some of the equipment that should have been in place.
Sources said one of the gearboxes had been fitted while another one arrived at the yard a few weeks ago. To get it fitted, the ship will have to be taken back to the dry dock. An Indo-German collaboration that supplied gearboxes for the 5,000-tonne stealth warship, INS Shivalik, was chosen in this case also. The aircraft carrier is almost 10 times bigger. The first lot of gearboxes provided by the company was unacceptable and had to be designed afresh.
The contract was to have around 18,000 tonne of the warship ready at the time of the launch, but it is still short by around 4,000 tonne, sources said. The MoD and the Navy have conveyed their displeasure to the shipyard and asked it to get the warship back to the dry dock and simultaneously continue with other works till the gearbox issue is sorted out.
The MoD had allocated Rs 230 crore for the modernisation of the shipyard. Since a modular-style construction has been adopted, it is possible to work on other equipment at another site.
The primary reason for the delay is the highly complex nature of the warship that India is attempting along with its simultaneous efforts to localise production. India is the fifth country attempting to make such a warship, which will have fighter aircraft stationed at its deck. So far, only the USA, Russia, the UK and France have produced such warships. China is re-fitting the one that it purchased from Ukraine after the USSR broke up.
Strategically, this delay will affect the Indian ambition to have two aircraft carriers in its Naval fleet. At present, India has only one, the INS Viraat, which after a life extension, is slated to retire in 2015. It is 50-year-old and the fighter aircraft on its deck, the Sea Harriers, are no more produced now. The second aircraft carrier, the Russian-origin Admiral Gorshkov, is undergoing sea-trials in Russia and is set to join the Indian fleet early next year under its new name, the INS Vikramaditya. In case the IAC is not delivered till 2015 - which is unlikely as per the present status - the Navy will be left with only one aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya.
India starts work on second indigenous aircraft carrier | idrw.orgIndia has started working on its second indigenous aircraft carrier even as the construction of the first one has been marred by delay of over two years. The Indigenous Aircraft Carrier ( IAC)-II would be the largest ship in terms of the weight and size to have ever been built by the Navy, Navy sources said here.
On the delays in the IAC-I, they said against the December 2010 timeline, the Navy was now planning to launch it by the end of this year or early next year.
Sources said delays in the warship project were caused mainly due to problems in its gearbox, they said.
The 40,000 tonne IAC-I is being constructed by the Kochin Shipyard in Kerala and is so far the biggest warship project undertaken in the country.
At its now expected induction timeline of 2017, it would be the second largest warship after the Russian-originAdmiral Gorshkov, which is set to arrive in India by March next year.
They said the IAC-I has two very large gear boxes weighing around 90 tonnes each– the largest-ever to have been handled by the Navy.
Asked about the specifications of the IAC-2, Navy sources said the work was going on and a number of design options were being explored.
Navy sources expressed hope that by the time the IAC-II would be ready, the indigenously-built Naval Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) would also be fully mature for operating on it.
On the Shivalik Class frigate INS Sahyadri to be commissioned in to the Navy on July 21, Navy officials said it was the last ship of its class Project 17. They said the work on the next Project 17A has already started.
Welcome to free and transparent media, I hope China will have one too, soon.from his foot, his guy is famous thinking in foot.
Welcome to free and transparent media, I hope China will have one too, soon.
India high-quality design standard, what you can expect?The specifications that the carrier was built were incorrect. The generators don't line up and the gearboxes don't accommodate the length of the shafts. Why is the hull rusting in harbour when she should be in drydock getting the proper dimensions?
from his foot, his guy is famous thinking in foot.Where are you getting all this information from? Have you any source, or are you just going to defend a German company without any basis?
All my replys were delated because your free and transparent do not like, is that what you called free and transparent? But I do enjoy you guy here, it do bring me a lot of laugh all the time. Keep going!Welcome to free and transparent media, I hope China will have one too, soon.
Tell me how much do you contribute and how much do you troll? Trolls are not invited I suppose and I hope.All my replys were delated because your free and transparent do not like, is that what you called free and transparent? But I do enjoy you guy here, it do bring me a lot of laugh all the time. Keep going!
Well I except you donot consider DFI as a national mediaAll my replys were delated because your free and transparent do not like, is that what you called free and transparent? But I do enjoy you guy here, it do bring me a lot of laugh all the time. Keep going!
Free and transparent but factual. You and most of your colleagues post fiction. That apart, you are not media, you are more a bot.All my replys were delated because your free and transparent do not like, is that what you called free and transparent? But I do enjoy you guy here, it do bring me a lot of laugh all the time. Keep going!
All my replys were delated because your free and transparent do not like, is that what you called free and transparent? But I do enjoy you guy here, it do bring me a lot of laugh all the time. Keep going!
One of the most interesting thing about IAC-1 power-plant that it will take her within 2mins at most to start and running without much noise and almost with no smoke..General Electric LM2500 Gas Turbine
IAC-I will have 4 of these. These produce upto 27 MWe, and have been used in many application in combination with diesel engines as CODAG (Combined Diesel And Gas). These are also used in Fincantieri designed Andrea Doria. Fincantieri also collaborated with Cochin Shipyard to build the IAC-I.
Some pictures:
You are able criticize the forum and moderators openly without any action being taken against you - this inherently signifies openness!This is what you called a dictator, right? do it, who care!
Check you forum you indian members do the samething again and again to others, why delate those? So, do not tell me 'free and transparent, its just a bull shit.
free and transparent media is allergic to moronsAll my replys were delated because your free and transparent do not like, is that what you called free and transparent? But I do enjoy you guy here, it do bring me a lot of laugh all the time. Keep going!
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