India recently achieved a remarkable feat which went largely unnoticed as media-houses were busy covering Indian Army's daring cross-border surgical strike in Myanmar. India's first indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC-1) 'INS Vikrant' was undocked at Cochin Shipyard Ltd., (CSL) marking the completion of phase-II of construction. 'INS Vikrant' will be the replacing Indian Navy's ageing INS Viraat aircraft carrier whose decommissioning is now scheduled for 2018. INS Vikrant which displaces some 40,000 tonnes & has a length of 262 metres is the largest ship ever built by an Indian shipyard & is among only seven aircraft carriers in the world that are under construction as of 2015. This mega-ship is being built at a cost of INR.20,000 crores. This ship is designed to host a maximum of 30 fixed-wing aircrafts (such as Mig-29K/KUB & HAL Tejas) & will have a maximum range of 15,000 Kms.
INS Vikrant will be armed heavily with four OTO Melara 76 mm naval guns & AK-630 CIWS besides using state-of-the-art Barak-8 surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) to take on aerial targets. It will also be equipped with EL/M 2248 (S-band) & Selex RAN-40 (L-band) AESA radars that are capable of detecting aircrafts/drones upto 400 Kms away. This ship will augment Indian Navy's power projection capabilities as far as South China Sea & East China sea.
When completed INS Vikrant will look like this
INS Vikrant being undocked at CSL
INS Vikrant after being undocked
Rear view of INS Vikrant
Eagle's eye view of INS Vikrant before being undocked
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