Indian Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Jeff Head

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
kwaigonegin said:
not to nitpick but the good admiral needs to brush up on his vocabulary. There is no such thing as 'weapons' grade steel in building naval ships. You have steel made for barrels of guns etc that conform to AISI 8620 or 4140 standards etc but he should not be confusing high strength shipbuling steel with 'weapons grade steel'.

what;s next? weapons grade aluminium for making hulls? a lot of ships nowadays are made of aluminium to save weight.
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My guess is that something has been lost in the translation or the reporting.

It is a well known issue for the Indians in the past that they could not produce the types and amounts of high strength steel necessary for the larger vessels like carriers, etc. and they had to get it elsewhere. It hurt them on this project but now they appear to have solved the issue and can produce their own.

We shall see.
 
Jeff Head

Jeff Head

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Times of India said:
August 8, 2013
Kochi, India

The launch of the Air Defence Ship, the largest military ship and first aircraft carrier to be built in India, in Kochi on Monday is a historic step. It not only sends out the right signals about India's ability to build such a complex naval platform, but also shows the country's growing capabilities in ship building. And most importantly, India's growing ambition to build a truly 'blue water' navy that can reach across the oceans to protect its interests-- be it minerals and commodities in Africa and Latin America or oil and gases from Middle East.

The indigenous aircraft carrier, first of the two being built under the Vikrant class, is expected to join the navy by 2018, by when INS Vikramaditya, the Russian aircraft carrier set to join service in a few months, would have become the focus of a powerful carrier battle group. The Vikrant class indigenous carrier would become the centrepiece of a second carrier battle group.

The 40,000 tonne ship takes India to a select club of countries that can build an aircraft carrier. The carrier is being built from indigenously produced high grade warship steel, made by the Steel Authority of India.

Besides the Russian MIG-29K fighters, the carrier could also end up having naval version of the indigenously made light combat aircraft (LCA) on board. The carrier would also have long range surface-to-air missiles (LRSAM) being developed by Israel, and other weapon systems.
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She is looking better and better now. The Ski Jump is installed and it looks like the hull is pretty much done.
 
Jeff Head

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
As India prepares to launch the INS Virkant, India's first indigenous aircraft carrier, new pictures of the vessel are emerging in preparation for tomorrows launch:


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The launch is slated for August 12, 2013, and I expect a whole slate of new, public pictures will be made available at that time. I received these pictures from a friend in India who was part of the group allowed on the carrier Saturday, August 10, 2013.
 
MwRYum

MwRYum

Major
Franklin said:
The ship looks to me like a smaller version of the Liaoning/Kuznetsov. She will be a beauty and will serve india well in the future.
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It'd not the ship as the biggest concern in its role, it's whether anymore delay and problem in its construction...while delays and problems are common when comes to pioneering ship class being built for the first time anywhere, India seems to commonly encounter delays worse than most others.
 
Jeff Head

Jeff Head

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Registered Member
These two pictures show why the Vikrant is going to be another year and a half to two years before she is ready for sea trials:


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As you can see, there are several major portions of the ship that simply are not finished yet.

The lower hull is completed. But the upper hull is only complted about 75% of the way from the bow back. The flight deck only covers that area of the vessel. So you still have approximately 20-25% of the upper hull and flight deck to complete.

And, of course the island is not on the vessel yet. All of that has to be complete, which will include significant portions of the innards and probably the aft section of the hanger deck, before the major weapons, sensors, and other systems can be added.

I believe the Indian government was at a point where they had to launch the vessel. It is so late, and they need the support of the people for the government and the military. So they launched her imcomplete so the people could see that significant progress had been made, though she is already 3 years late.

It is still an hoistoric and exciting event...but it is also now what most of us would consider a vessel that was truly ready to launch.

I am looking for some pictures of the vessel from the aft that would show the nature of what has not been completed back there in more detail.
 
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