India, Developing INS Vikrant Aircraft Carrier (Indian technology)

India’s first domestically built aircraft carrier, the future INS Vikrant, designated IAC-1, will be ready for induction into service by October 2020, a senior Indian Navy official said this month during a media briefing in New Delhi. “IAC-I is expected to join the Navy in October 2020. All trial schedules have been worked out. We are going to sign advanced contracts with Cochin Shipyard Limited very soon,” Commodore J. Chowdhary, the Indian Navy’s principal director of naval design, said in January 19. In 1989, India announced a plan to replace its ageing British-built aircraft carriers, INS Vikrant and INS Viraat, with two new 28,000-ton Air Defence Ships (ADS) that would operate the BAe Sea Harrier aircraft. The first vessel was to replace Vikrant, which was set to decommission in early 1997. Construction of the ADS was to start at the Cochin Shipyard (CSL) in 1993 after the Indian Naval Design Organisation had translated this design study into a production model. Following the 1991 economic crisis, the plans for construction of the vessels were put on hold indefinitely.

 A 2016 report published by the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) the Indian government’s principal oversight body said that the ship would only be ready for induction in 2023. “That was CAG’s version, as far as Navy is concerned, we are confident,” of meeting the earlier deadline, Chowdhary emphasized. In 1999, then-Defence Minister George Fernandes revived the project and sanctioned the construction of the Project 71 ADS. By that time, given the ageing Sea Harrier fleet, the letter of intent called for a carrier that would carry more modern jet fighters. In 2001, CSL released a graphic illustration showing a 32,000-ton STOBAR (Short Take-Off but Arrested Recovery) design with a pronounced ski jump. The aircraft carrier project finally received formal government approval in January 2003. By then, design updates called for a 37,500-ton carrier to operate the MiG-29K.

India opted for a three-carrier fleet consisting of one carrier battle group stationed on each seaboard, and a third carrier held in reserve, in order to continuously protect both its flanks, to protect economic interests and mercantile traffic, and to provide humanitarian platforms in times of disasters, since a carrier can provide a self-generating supply of fresh water, medical assistance or engineering expertise to populations in need for assistance. In August 2006, then-Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Arun Prakash stated that the designation for the vessel had been changed from Air Defence Ship (ADS) to Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC). The euphemistic ADS had been adopted in planning stages to ward off concerns about a naval build-up. Final revisions to the design increased the displacement of the carrier from 37,500 tons to over 40,000 tons. The length of the ship also increased from 252 metres (827 ft) to over 260 metres (850 ft).

General characteristics

1. Name: INS Vikrant
2. Namesake: INS Vikrant (R11)
3. Owner:   Ministry of Defence
4. Operator:  Indian Navy
5. Ordered: 2004
6. Builder: Cochin Shipyard Limited
7. Cost:  $0.5bn (planned), ₹19,341 crore
8. Laid down:   28 February 2009
9. Launched:   12 August 2013
10. Completed:      Est. October 2020
11. Commissioned: Est. 2020
12. Status: Fitting out
13. Displacement: 40,000 tonnes
14. Length: 262 m
15. Beam:  62 m
16. Draught: 8.4 m
17. Depth: 25.6 m
18. Decks:  2.5 acres
19. Installed power: 4 × General Electric LM2500+ gas turbines 2 × Elecon COGAG gearbox
20. Propulsion: Two shafts
21. Speed: 28 knots ,52 km/h
22. Range: 8,000 nautical miles,15,000 km
23. Crew:   196 officers, 1,449 sailors (including air crew) Sensors and
24. processing systems: Selex RAN-40L long-range early warning and surveillance AESA radar. Elta EL/M-2248 MF-STAR AESA multifunction radar.
25. Armament: 4 × Otobreda 76 mm (3 in) dual purpose cannons
26. Barak 1 & Barak 8 surface-to-air missile launchers (2 x 32 cells VLS) AK-630 CIWS
27. Aircraft carried: 30-40 Total Aircraft fixed-wing aircraft including 26 x Fixed Wing Aircraft including Mikoyan MiG-29K
28. rotatory-wing including 10 x Kamov Ka-31, Westland Sea King and HAL Dhruv.
29. Aviation facilities: 10,000 m2 (110,000 sq ft) flight deck

Design

It is 262 metres (860 ft) long and 60 metres (200 ft) wide and displaces about 40,000 metric tons (39,000 long tons). It features a STOBAR configuration with a ski-jump. The deck is designed to enable aircraft such as the MiG-29K to operate from the carrier. It is expected to carry an air group of up to thirty aircraft, which will include up to 24–26 fixed-wing combat aircraft,[20] primarily the Mikoyan MiG-29K, besides carrying 10 Kamov Ka-31 or Westland Sea King helicopters. The Ka-31 will fulfill the airborne early warning (AEW) role and the Sea King will provide anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capability. Vikrant is powered by four General Electric LM2500+ gas turbines on two shafts, generating over 80 megawatts (110,000 hp) of power. The gearboxes for the carriers were designed and supplied by Elecon Engineering The Vikrant, the lead ship of the Indian Navy’s Vikrant-class, the first aircraft carriers to be designed and built in India under the so-called Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) program, was officially launched in August 2013 and relaunched in June 2015. Construction of the carrier was delayed multiple times over the last few years primarily due to hold-ups in procurement including contractual disputes with Russia’s Rosoboronexport over the construction of the carrier’s aviation complex. 

The program has also been plagued by cost overruns with the carrier, as of now, costing as much as $4 billion more than originally budgeted. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi allocated an extra $3 billion to the IAC program in 2014 to speed up construction of the Vikrant. The Vikrant was expected to begin sea trials last year with a commissioning originally date set for 2018. (Initially, the carrier was expected to be delivered to the Indian Navy in 2014 and commissioned in 2016 or 2017.) The ship is now slated to be handed over to the Navy by the end of this year for harbor and sea trials. The 40,000-ton carrier will be fitted with a ski-jump assisted Short Take-Off But Arrested Recovery (STOBAR) launch systems for launching aircraft. “[The] STOBAR system imposes limits on the operational range and armament of aircraft operating from the carrier given that ski-jump takeoff and arrested carrier landings necessitate a high thrust-to-weight ratio for successful take-offs and can only be conducted with lightweight aircraft,” I explained elsewhere. The carrier, at a length of 262 meters and a width of 60 meters, can operate up to 40 aircraft including Russian-made MiG-29K Fulcrum fighter jets the current mainstay of Indian naval aviation, Kamov Ka-31, HAL Dhruv, or Westland Sea King helicopters.

Construction

Vikrant is the first aircraft carrier to be designed by the Directorate of Naval Design of the Indian Navy and the first warship to be built by Cochin Shipyard. Its construction involved participation of a large number of private and public firms. The keel for Vikrant was laid by Defence Minister A.K. Antony at the Cochin Shipyard on 28 February 2009. The AB/A grade steel which was supposed to be supplied from Russia faced problems in delivery. To resolve this, the Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL) and Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) created facilities to manufacture the steel in India. Reportedly, 26,000 tonnes of three types of special steel for the hull, flight deck and floor compartments were manufactured at the Bhilai Steel Plant, Chhattisgarh and Rourkela Steel Plant, Odisha. Due to this, this is the first ship of the Indian navy to be built completely using domestically-produced steel.

 The main switch board, steering gear and water tight hatches have been manufactured by Larsen & Toubro in Mumbai and Talegaon; high-capacity air conditioning and refrigeration systems have been manufactured in Kirloskar Group’s plants in Pune; most pumps have been supplied by Best and Crompton; Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) supplied the Integrated Platform Management System (IPMS), which is being installed by Avio, an Italian company; the gear box was supplied by Elecon Engineering; and the electrical cables are being supplied by Nicco Industries.. Fincantieri provided consultancy for the propulsion package while Russia's Nevskoye Design Bureau designed the aviation complex