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The Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) – Vikrant, India’s most complex warship to have been indigenously built by Cochin Shipyard for the Indian Navy proceeded for its maiden sea trials on Wednesday.
The vessels propulsion plants will be put to rigorous testing at the sea in addition to the trials of various navigation, communication and hull equipment. “It is a red-letter day for the Indian shipbuilding industry. Significant capabilities have been developed by CSL in areas of ship design, construction and network integration. We look forward to associating with Indian Navy in building critical assets for the country,” said Madhu S Nair, Chairman and Managing Director, CSL.
Design
The basic design of the IAC has been developed indigenously by the Directorate of Naval Design of the Indian Navy and the entire detailed engineering, construction and system integration is undertaken by Cochin Shipyard Limited. The shipyard carried out the detailed engineering of the ship using advanced software which enabled the designer to get a complete 3D view of the compartments of the ship. It is the first time in the country that a ship the size of an aircraft carrier is completely modelled in 3D and production drawings extracted from the 3D model.
The IAC is the largest warship built in the country having a displacement of about 40,000 tonnes. The ship is a mammoth steel structure made of 21,500 tonnes of special grade steel developed indigenously and is being used in an Indian naval ship for the first time.
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The aircraft carrier is a mini floating city, with a flight deck area covering the size of two football fields. It is 262 m long, 62 m at the widest part and height of 59 m including the superstructure. Vikrant has a top speed of around 28 knots and cruising speed of 18 knots with an endurance of about 7,500 nautical miles. There are 14 decks in all, including five in the superstructure. The ship has over 2,300 compartments, designed for a crew of around 1,700 people, including specialised cabins to accommodate women officers.
The construction of the IAC has contributed immensely to the Indian economy as it generated a demand in both the upstream industries such as steel, electromechanical machinery equipment and also for downstream sectors such as infrastructure and services. This has led to growth in indigenous design and construction capabilities besides development of a large number of ancillary industries, with employment opportunities for 2,000 CSL personnel and about 12,000 employees in ancillary industries.
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