It is the second major boost to the maritime power of Navy. India's first indigenous aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, yesterday joined the Western Fleet in the Arabian Sea, officials said here on Friday. The Carrier Battle Group, led by INS Vikramaditya, inducted INS Vikrant with a multi-domain exercise and twin Carrier fighter operations in the Arabian Sea, giving an edge to the Navy's 'Sword Arm'.
The INS Vikrant is the Navy's fourth aircraft carrier and the first to be built indigenously at the Cochin Shipyard Ltd. at Kochi in Kerala, and will now be based at the naval base in Karwar, Karnataka. The majestic aircraft carrier is a sleek 262 metres (860 feet) long and 62 metres (203 feet) wide and displaces around 45,000 tonnes. It can take on an air group of up to 36 aircraft, which includes 26 fixed-wing combat aircraft, plus a mix of helicopters, equipped with a plethora of lethal weapons, plus search and rescue operations.
The INS Vikrant has been fitted with four GE gas turbines on two shafts that can generate over 80MW power – enough to illuminate a small city with a population of 20 lakh. Its CMS was developed by Tata Advanced Systems, the first one by a private company for the Navy, and was handed over in March 2019. INS Vikrant is one of the two operational aircraft carriers, the other being INS Vikramaditya, of the Navy that has 2,300 compartments manned by 1,700 sailors, cabins for female officers, and some 8 km of corridors.
The ship was originally authorized way back in 1999 by then Defence Minister George Fernandes, while its keel was laid in 2009 by former Defence Minister A. K. Antony and was launched in 2013, sea trials began in August 2021. The INS Vikrant was later commissioned to the Navy by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 2, 2022, and INS Vikrant achieved full operational status in November 2023, and has finally joined the Navy's Western Fleet on the high seas on Friday.
In February this year, it participated in the Navy hosting another multinational naval exercise Milan 2024, while also being the platform on board ship INS Vikrant through which exercises concluded the sea phase.
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