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Keel of first indigenous aircraft carrier laid

Staff Reporter

The ship will catapult India into a select club of four nations

The carrier will be 260 metres long and 60 metres wide
It is a red letter day, says navy chief

PHOTO: VIPIN CHANDRAN

PROUD MOMENT: Admiral Sureesh Mehta, Chief of the Naval Staff, receiving a model of the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier from Commodore M. Jitendran, chairman and managing director of the Cochin Shipyard Limited, at the keel laying ceremony of the carrier, in Kochi on Saturday. Defence Minister A.K. Antony looks on.

KOCHI: In what was hailed by Admiral Sureesh Mehta, Chief of the Naval Staff, as a red letter day in the history of Indian warship-building, the keel of the first indigenous aircraft carrier was laid by Defence Minister A.K. Antony at Cochin Shipyard Ltd. here on Saturday.

When completed in 2014, the ship will catapult India into a select club of four nations with the capability to design and build 40,000-tonne category aircraft carriers. By then, construction of at least one more carrier will be under way.

Mr. Antony said the warship-building programme would give an impetus to indigenisation of defence production.

On maritime security, he said: “Protection of our vast Exclusive Economic Zone is vital to the rapid economic growth of the country. We are living in a world of uncertainty, conflict, threats from maritime terrorism, piracy, narcotics, smuggling and low-intensity conflict … The security of our sea lanes, communication lines and offshore infrastructure will have to be ensured for sustainable development.”

He hoped that the Navy would simultaneously operate two or three carriers in the not-so-distant future.

Partnership

Admiral Mehta, in his address, pointed to the need to harness the strengths of public-private partnerships in warship design and construction to meet national requirements.

Sanctioned by the government in 2003, the IAC (Project 71) was the most prestigious project of the Navy so far.

The carrier will be 260 metres long and 60 metres wide.

Propelled by two shafts, each coupled to two LM2500 gas turbines generating 80 MW of power, the ship will be able cruise at speeds of over 28 knots. It will have an endurance of around 8,000 nautical miles and a complement of 1,600.

With two take-off runways and a landing strip with three arrester wires, it will embark a mix of 30 aircraft, including the Russian MiG 29 K and Ka-31, besides the indigenous naval Light Combat Aircraft. The carrier has been designed with a high degree of automation for machinery operation, navigation and survivability.

Using the ‘integrated hull outfitting and painting’ method, blocks weighing about 8,100 tonnes — close to 400 of the total 872 blocks — have been fabricated. Major equipment for installation on the lower decks has been ordered. Warship grade steel was readied in-house with the help of the Defence Research and Development Organisation and Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL).

Missile systems

The carrier will field long-range surface-to-air missile systems with a multi-function radar, a close-in weapon system, the most modern C/D band early air-warning radar and the V/UHF tactical air-navigational and direction finding systems.

The carrier will have jamming capabilities over the expected electromagnetic (EM) environment, along with carrier control approach radars to aid air operations. Integration of all weapon systems onboard will be through an indigenous combat management system.

The ship’s integration with the Navy’s network-centric operations will provide for force multiplication.

Planned in two phases, the first launch of the carrier will take place in 2010. The second phase, done in the refit dock, will have all underwater systems going in. The shipyard is being assisted by the Italian firm Fincantieri in propulsion system integration and NDB of Russia in aviation aspects.

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