INS Vikrant : Features and its Importance

The country’s first indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC-1) will soon be commissioned in the presence of the Indian Prime Minister. It was announced by the Indian Navy. This is one of the major steps taken by the Indian government in the field of the Indian defense sector. Recent world scenario, India needs an aircraft carrier to safeguard its territory and this step will give a boost to India’s position in the world. This is very important for the exams because this is a very important step and students need to prepare the topic in detail.

INS Vikrant :

INS Vikrant – a 44,000-ton Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) – is the first ship designed and built in India. Once enlisted, the warship will be a key component of the Indian Navy’s quest to establish itself as a “Blue Water” force capable of projecting its power into distant seas. The Indian-made aircraft carrier is India’s flagship because there are only 5 or 6 countries that can build aircraft carriers.

Important Features of INS Vikrant :

• At 262 meters long, Vikrant is longer than two football pitches and 62 meters wide. About 20 aircraft can be parked in the hangar. It has a top speed of about 28 knots (more than 50 km/h), a cruising speed of 18 knots, and a range of about 7,500 nautical miles.
  
• More than 76% of her materials and equipment onboard the ship are domestically produced, including 21,500 tons of speciality steel, which was developed domestically and is the first to be used on an Indian naval vessel. Special grade steel for the entire ship, except for the ramp rods, was sourced from steel mills in Bhilai, Bokaro, and Rourkela.
  
• INS Vikrant was designed by the Indian Navy’s in-house Warship Design Bureau (WDB) under Cochin Shipyard Limited, a public sector shipyard under the Ministry of Ports, Ships, and Waterways. The ship is huge enough to accommodate two Olympic-sized swimming pools and two soccer fields. It consists of 16 hospital beds, 250 fuel tankers, and 2,400 compartments and can carry 1,600 female officers and non-commissioned officers.
  
• The new aircraft is owned by India’s Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), which supplied her DMR plates of 249A grade for the hull and ship’s internal structures and 249B grade steel for the warship’s flight deck.  Developed by steel maker Maharatna PSU. 
  
• The vessel features a new mode of aircraft operation called STOBAR (Short Take-Off But Arrested Recovery), which consists of sky jumping and safety wires.
  

List of weapons INS Vikrant can carry :

• Russian MiG-29K fighter
  
• Kamov-31, an early warning helicopter
  
• Domestic advanced light helicopters
  
•  Lockheed Martin MH-60R utility helicopter

Why is the name called INS Vikrant :

INS Vikrant was India’s first aircraft carrier acquired from Britain in 1961. It played a key role in the 1971 war with Pakistan which led to the creation of Bangladesh. She retired in 1997. India’s first domestically built aircraft carrier now bears the name of its illustrious predecessor.

India’s other aircraft carriers :

• The Indian Navy currently has only one operational carrier  – INS Vikramaditya.
  
• The two previous aircraft carriers in the country, INS Vikrant and INS Viraat were the British-built HMS Hercules and HMS Hermes, respectively, before the 1961 and 1987 commissioning of the Navy.  
  
• The commissioning of the warship, named Vikrant, marks a “historic milestone in the fulfillment of the nation’s commitment to Aatma Nirbharta” (self-reliance).