New Delhi: The Indian Navy got its first indigenous aircraft carrier with the commissioning of INS Vikrant by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday.
The unveiling of INS Virant marks a major milestone towards Atmanirbhar Bharat and help attain self-reliance in the defence sector.
The aircraft carrier has been named after its predecessor, which played vital role in the 1971 war with Pakistan.
With the commissioning of INS Vikrant, India has now 2 aircraft carrier in its fleet, both in operational mode and will bolster India’s maritime security.
Comparing INS Vikrant with US & Chinese vessels
INS Vikrant
INS Vikrant, the home-grown giant vessel is the largest ship to be designed & built in the maritime history of India. It is an engineering marvel, indigenously built and is about 5-7 times bigger than any warship made in the country.
With an operational range of 7500 Nautical Miles, the vessel is nothing less than a floating city with about 14 decks and 2,300 compartments. They have a capacity of housing over 1,700 crew members including special cabins for women officers.
The aircraft carrier has a capacity of carrying 30 planes with 30 tonnes each.
As per official details, the companies which steered this giant ship include TATA, L&T, Wartsila and Kirloskar Pneumatics along with public sector Bharat Electronics Limited, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and Mishra Dhatu Nigam (MIDHANI).
The aircraft carrier is equipped with latest state-of-the-art equipment and advanced systems and boasts of full-fledged hospitality centre with 16 beds.
INS Vikrant has 2 take-off runways and a landing strip along with three arrester wires.
With INS Vikrant’s commissioning, India joins the select league of nations including US, UK, Russia, France, and China that have the ability to design & build an aircraft carrier with a displacement of over 40,000 tonnes.
According to a leading daily, the landing trials of MiG-29K fighter planes would begin in November and be completed by mid-2023. INS Vikrant will be fully operational by 2023 end.
US’ USS Gerald R Ford
United States remains the undisputed leader in having the number & strength of the aircraft carriers. The latest vessel to join the US Navy was USS Gerald R. Ford .
Commissioned in Year 20-17, the USS Gerald R. Ford has a displacement of a whopping 112,000 tons, thus making it the largest warship in the world.
It’s capacity is almost 3 times of INS Vikrant in terms of crew members, i.e. 4,500.
It can carry over 75 aircrafts including the most lethal ones like Lockheed Martin F-35 and Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter jets, and Sikorsky MH-60R helicopters.
China’s Fujian
China also launched its latest aircraft carrier named Fujian at a ceremony in Shanghai in June this year.
Much like India’s INS Vikrant , Fujian is China’s 1st indigenously designed and built catapult aircraft carrier. China has 2 other operational carriers and with this, the Asian Giant has now 3 vessels which can carry fighter jets.
Fujian has a displacement of more than 80,000 tonnes, almost nearly double of Vikrant. It is not operation yet but will join the naval fleet soon.
With Fujian, China is likely to mount its presence in South China Sea and Taiwan Straits, which lately saw friction in ties over US Speaker’s visit.
