India launched its maiden indigenously designed and built aircraft carrier INS Vikrant on Friday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi commissioning the warship that put India into a select league of countries with domestic capability to develop such large vessels.
The prime minister said Vikrant, which means victorious, is huge, massive, and vast. "Vikrant is distinguished, Vikrant is also special. Vikrant is not just a warship and stood testimony to Indian skills and talent. He also spoke about certain features of the aircraft carrier -- which he described as a "floating airfield, a floating town" -- and said the power generated in it can light up 5,000 houses.
With the commissioning of INS Vikrant, India now has two operational aircraft carriers to bolster maritime security, the other being INS Vikramaditya. Here is a look at how the two warships stack up against each other:
While INS Vikrant is India’s first indigenously designed and built aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya is a modified Kiev-class aircraft carrier purchased by India from Russia in 2013 and was renamed in the honour of Vikramaditya, the legendary emperor.
INS Vikrant is 262-metre long and 62 metres wide. It displaces approximately 43,000 tonnes when fully loaded and has a maximum designed speed of 28 knots with endurance of 7,500 nautical miles. On the other hand, INS Vikramaditya has an overall length of 284 metres and is 60 metres wide. It is capable of operations up to a range of over 7,000 nautical miles (13,000 km).
INS Vikrant has around 2,200 compartments which can accommodate a crew of around 1,600. On the other hand, INS Vikramaditya has a total of 22 decks and carries around 1,600 personnel.
The INS Vikrant will not have its own fleet of fighter jets on deck immediately and instead will rely on a few Russian-designed aircraft borrowed from INS Vikramaditya. For the first few years, MiG-29K jets will operate from the warship. INS Vikramaditya can carry over 30 aircraft, comprising an assortment of MiG 29K/Sea Harrier, Kamov 31, Kamov 28, Sea King, ALH-Dhruv and Chetak helicopters.
INS Viraat
INS Viraat has the honour of being India’s oldest aircraft carrier. It also has the honour of being longest serving warship in the world. It held the Guinness Books of record for this, according to the Indian Navy.
INS Viraat was first commissioned into the British Royal Navy as the HMS Hermes on 18 November 1959. She served as the flagship of the Royal Navy’s task force during the Falklands War in 1982. She was decommissioned in 1985. Hermes was thereafter towed from Portsmouth Dockyard to Devonport Dockyard to be refitted and sold to India for $465 million.
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