India most power full aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya used by indian ...

 Indian Newest INS Vikramaditya Aircraft Carrier of Navy

INS Vikramaditya is the newest and largest ship to join Indian Navy on 16 Nov 2013. The ship was commissioned on 16 Nov 13 by Defence Minister Shri AK Antony in Russia.

INS Vikramaditya, after extensive refurbishment in Russia, sailed into its home port of Karwar on 07 Jan 2014. This former Soviet “missile cruiser”, at 44,500 tons displacement, is the largest ship ever to be operated by the Indian Navy (IN). The MiG-29K aircraft destined to serve aboard the Vikramaditya are already in India with training progressing at a shore based facility designed to mimic operations off the aircraft carrier’s deckii. INS Vikramaditya is expected to carry 18 MiG-29K fighters with an option for another 12. She will also operate various variants of the Kamov Ks-31 helicopter. The first indigenously designed and built aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, was launched on 12 August 2013. This was a great feat for the nation’s warship design and building fraternity. While still several years from operationalisation, the launching of INS Vikrant, which has been designed to carry as many as 36 fixed wing fighter aircraft comprising a mix of MiG-29K fighters and indigenous LCA (naval variants) in addition to Ka-31 AEW and ALH helicopters, is a great feat. INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant, once the latter is ready, will be able to accompany and provide air cover to Indian Navy vessels anywhere they go.

IMPLICATIONS OF AIRPOWER AT SEA

The importance of air power at sea can not be overstated. In fact since the Battle of Coral Sea (04-08 May 1942), which saw two opposing fleets of ships fighting a major sea battle but without ships directly sighting ships of the opposing side. The entire battle was conducted through use of aircraft launched from aircraft carriers. Not one long range gun was fired from a ship at asurface target in the entire battle. Since this battle the importance and potency of air power hasbeen clear to all aviation and naval professionals.

Specificatons

S.NO	TYPES	PARAMETERS
1	Name	INS Vikramaditya
2	Operator	Indian Navy
3	Ordered	20 January 2004
4	Builder	Black Sea Shipyard, USSR, and Sevmash, Russia
5	Cost	$2.35 billion
6	Launched	4 December 2008
7	Completed	19 April 2012
8	Class and type	Modified Kiev-class aircraft carrier
9	Displacement	45,400 tons of loaded displacement
10	Beam	59.8 metres
11	Decks	22
12	Installed power	6 turbo alternators and 6 diesel alternators which generate 18 MWe
13	Draught	10.2 metres
14	Propulsion	8 turbo-pressurised boilers, 4 shafts, 4 geared steam turbines, generating 180,000 horsepower (134,226 kW)
15	Armament	4 × AK-630 CIWS Barak 1 ex INS Godavari Barak 8 (LRSAM)
16	Speed	+30 knots (56 km/h
17	Renge	13,500 nautical miles (25,000 km) at 18 knots (33 km/h)
18	Complement	110 officers and 1500 sailors
19	Sensors and processing systems	Long range Air Surveillance Radars, LESORUB-E, Resistor-E radar complex, CCS MK II communication complex and Link II tactical data system
20	Aircraft carried	Maximum of 36 aircraft including 26 × Mikoyan MiG-29K multi-role fighters 10 × Kamov Ka-31 AEW&C and Kamov Ka-28 ASW helicopters[
21	Aviation facilities	14 degree ski-jump Three 30 m wide arrester gears and three restraining gears.

ANALYSIS OF INDIAN AIRPOWER AT SEA

The induction of INS Vikramaditya along with the earlier launching of the hull of INS Vikrant, with the power plant and generators integrated, is the first step in building up a potent multidimensional seagoing force able to defend India’s interests at large distances from the country’s shores. INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant will carry similar aircraft in form of MiG-29K, and Ka-31 on board giving them some interoperability advantages. These two ships are expected to provide a much longer arm, to Indian fleets that they accompany, to reach out and influence matters well outside the usual reach of ships that are armed with heavy guns and missiles. The fighters on board the aircraft carriers are these shops’ primary weapons and could be expected to be able to project effective force as much as several hundred kilometres from the location of the aircraft carriers themselves. The MiG-29Ks will also be able to ensure that hostile aircraft are unable to threaten our fleets even at large distances from the Indian mainland and thus outside the protective cover of land based Indian.

fighters.

IN’s MiG-29K fighters are heavily modifiedversions of the earlier land based MiG-29B operated by the Indian Air Force (IAF). The MiG-29K through redesign carries about 50% more internal fuel than the MiG-29B. this gives the MiG-29K a Radius of action (RoA) of 850 km on internal fuel and a RoA of 1300 km through use of external fuel tanks (“drop tanks”).  The MiG29K are capable of carrying out buddy refuelling through use of specially designed buddy refuelling packs. With buddy refuelling, the MiG-29K, if one were to apply the standard rule of thumb of in flight refuelling increasing the RoA of a fourth generation fighter by 60% over its without in flight refuelling RoA, the MiG-29K should obtain a RoA of between 1400 (without external fuel tanks) and 2000 km (with external “drop” tanks also attached, but jettisoned when empty). In case the buddy refuelling packs are not as yet standard fit on these aircraft it is reasonable to expect IN to purchase these in view of the fact that IN’s MiG-29Ks are likely to usually operate too far out at sea to be able to use the IAF’s Il-78 refuellers. These RoA figures are for medium level missions. 

                                         

The MiG-29K is capable of carrying an external weapon load of as much as 5500kg on nine external weapon stations. Thus even with three drop tanks attached, the MiG-29K should be able to carry a significant ordnance load on the remaining six weapon stations. The MiG-29K also boasts very advanced avionics; including the Thales “TopSightE” helmet mounted display and sightiv. The TopSightE itself through the increase in pilot efficiency it is likely to bestow significantly enhanced combat power in MiG-29K over the earlier MiG-29B and other variants. The MiG-29KUB, the two seat trainer of the type, is fully combat capable and has 8% less internal fuel giving it 7% lower RoA than the MiG-29Kv. With this capability the MiG-29Ks on board an IN CBG would be able to strike targets, with precision, as far as just over 2000km from the location of the INS Vikramaditya. The exact distance that the MiG-29Ks flying from Vikramaditya would be able to strike would, of course, depend upon the configuration chosen for the mission as well as the weapons selected for the strike.

ANALYSIS AND IMPLICATIONS OF INS VIKRAMADITYA AND INS VIKRANT

Till such time as INS Vikrant is built and ready for operational use INS Vikramaditya will serve alongside INS Viraat. INS Viraat is an ex-UK light carrier equipped with Sea Harrier aircraft in addition to helicopters. The Sea Harrier though an excellent aircraft in its own right does not match up in performance to the much more potent MiG-29K. A more potent CBG could be expected to be formed around INS Vikramaditya with a relatively less potent CBG being built around INS Viraat. Once INS Vikrant is ready and operational IN could be expected to field two equally potent CBGs. Entering the third decade of the Twenty first century IN should be able to field three carrier battle groups (CBGs). These three CBGs would be built around INS Vikramaditya, INS Vikrant and the under construction IAC-II. These should help IN protect Indian interests at locations far removed from Indian shores as well as closer to the homeland in a more effective and efficient manner. The increasingly “designed and made in India” nature of the IN’s fleets should provide strategic and tactical flexibility through total ownership of critical technologies and capabilities. Air power afloat as an integral part of the Indian naval fleets should provide these vessels assured air defence from hostile forces as well as a very potent strike element against surface targets at sea as well as on land and against enemy air power. Given the strategic importance of the Indian Ocean to the nation and world in general induction of INS Vikramaditya could be expected to give IN the capability to ensure that the vital sea lanes of communication (SLsOC) that pass through the Indian Ocean are secure while ensuring that potentially hostile naval elements are unable to dominate in this ocean.