INS Vikrant: News and Discussion

sankum · Post by **sankum** » 08 Jun 2015 14:27

Of the 10 nos old Ka 28 six nos will be upgraded with latest sensors for ASW role while rest 4 nos will have engine overhaul for training role in Rs 2000 Cr project . 4 nos new Ka 28 are also there for a total of 10 ASW versions and 4 Trainer/Utility role.

By 2020 10 Ka 28, 17 upg Sea king B, 16 Seahawk 70B, 16 Naval Dhruv=59 Asw Helo should fulfill the IN requirement apart from 100 nos NLUH procurement which should have begun and most likely will be Ka226.

9 nos old Ka 31+ 5 nos Ka 31 new order=14 nos are @4 nos each for INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant and rest 6 nos for talwar class frigates

member_28911 · Post by **member_28911** » 10 Jun 2015 16:58

Amitabh · Post by **Amitabh** » 10 Jun 2015 17:27

Photos via Pankaj Sharma on Twitter

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 10 Jun 2015 17:28

Its out its out

member_28911 · Post by **member_28911** » 10 Jun 2015 17:35

trials to start from 2016 end

Prasad · Post by **Prasad** » 10 Jun 2015 17:55

What a view to wake up to.

vina · Post by **vina** » 10 Jun 2015 18:06

What a beautiful ship ! Chinese and Pakis must be green with envy.

Just love the "distributed" radar antenna design, split into two , both fore and aft of the funnel, each island with arrays covering 180 degree each.

tsarkar · Post by **tsarkar** » 10 Jun 2015 18:10

What a fine ship! If only we had ordered two instead of the cruiser hull derived Frankenstein Vikramaditya.

And the scum UPA had the tenacity to launch the partially built ship for publicity and thereafter cut funding that delayed the program.

shravanp · Post by **shravanp** » 10 Jun 2015 18:12

The island on the deck looks stunning! Resembles the finishes from naval ships constructed in Nordic nations.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 10 Jun 2015 18:15

The distributed antenna thing was last seen in JMSDF akizuki ddg.....meant to launch swarms of essm

Prasad · Post by **Prasad** » 10 Jun 2015 18:18

So now that we have a better topside view, how much more work is left and how long will it take? A year?

arshyam · Post by **arshyam** » 10 Jun 2015 18:42

^^

Cochin Shipyard undocks INS Vikrant - S. Anandan, The Hindu

Vikrant, weighing about 22,000 tonnes now, will continue to be outfitted for over a year and a half now before the basin and sea trials begin ahead of delivery.

India, on Wednesday, crossed a major milestone in defence shipbuilding when the maiden indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant was undocked on completion of structural work at the Cochin Shipyard.

The carrier is slated for induction in end-2018.

Senior officials and workers of the public sector yard witnessed the undocking, done around 2 pm.

Problems with the dock gate and siltation at the gate mouth had forced the yard to postpone the undocking a few times earlier.

This time around, flooding of the dock and ballasting of the ship had begun on Monday itself. Once the vessel was floated over 8 metres of water pumped into the dock, the floodgate was overturned, after which Vikrant was pulled out by tugs.

Vikrant, weighing about 22,000 tonnes now, will continue to be outfitted for over a year and a half now before the basin and sea trials begin ahead of delivery.

"Almost 90 per cent of works below the fourth deck, all underwater works, is over. Major equipment have gone in. Cabling, piping, electrical works, heat and ventilation works will take place now. Delivery of systems and components for the aviation complex designed by the Russian Nevoske design bureau is expected anytime now," said an official.

The undocking is part of the second phase of work on the carrier, which is expected to be complete by 2017, when the basin trials will get under way.

member_28911 · Post by **member_28911** » 10 Jun 2015 18:55

Wow ...Indian Navy should order one more asap

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 10 Jun 2015 19:09

Bazingaa! Banzai! Whatever. A similar carrier would be simply great,but looking at the ship,it does seem possible that a "stretched" Vikrant class ,adding a couple more modules in the beam section,one each just forward and after the island could add another 10K t or thereabouts,which will increase the carrier's aircraft capacity to house another 10+ aircraft/helos.without altering the rest of the carrier.Of course more powerful engines are needed,but there is this extra space for the same. This could be built s easily as the Vikrant,wihout a completely new design for a 65K t carrier.

I am sure that the concept /modified hull design could be tried out in a model basin to determine the hydrodynamic qualities.The longer,sleeker hull might actually improve speed as was seen in the "G" class design which was a stretched Leander.

Being a true carrier,the Vikrant shows that it has a far wider beam/deck amidships,than the Vik-A,which was a cruiser/carrier conversion into a full deck carrier.The wider beam has its advantages though. Interesting to see several sponsons cantilevered out all around the vessel,more than on the Vik-A, which will house gatlings,SAMs,etc.When the carrier becomes operational,one hopes that we will see a great sight of the Vik-A,Vikrant and Viraat too sailing in formation wiht their accompanying task force,before the Viraat is pensioned off after more than half a century of superb service.

PS:The same basic hull/platform could also be used for the 4 amphibs that we require. The carrier's weight is said to be 22K t as of now,without the rest of the eqpt. being installed. Standardising the basic design of CVs and amphibs would be terrific in terms of commonality of eqpt,machinery,sensors,weapon systems ,etc. The cost of the amphibs /carrier would come down significantly,esp spares and support during the lifetime of the warships.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 10 Jun 2015 20:06

Stunningly beautiful. Kudos to IN and CSL for doing a great job. It is called made in India. Hope LCA is pushed in the like manner by its customers.

Cain Marko · Post by **Cain Marko** » 10 Jun 2015 20:16

Stunning pictures....number two shold be ordered ASAP...unless they can somehow make the Viraat linger till 2025, in which case a 65k ton behemoth could be worked on

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 10 Jun 2015 20:46

Excellent pictures. What a beautiful ship. I hope GoI and IN take up CSL's offer to build two of these at least.

Anyone else who had family in IN living in that area, or went to school on the other side of the shipyard, will have a much easier grasp of the size of this thing. The large island makes it look 'smaller', but it's quite a large ship.

Prasad · Post by **Prasad** » 10 Jun 2015 20:50

Can't we talk to the russians and offer a IAC-V version bundled with a squadron of Mig-29s to the Vietnamese or the Brazillians?

member_20067 · Post by **member_20067** » 10 Jun 2015 20:50

Ankar wrote:Wow ...Indian Navy should order one more asap

Anyone can identify the smaller ship birthed below..?

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 10 Jun 2015 20:54

Viraat will be hard put to make it past 2015, let alone 2025.

my estimate is around 2 yrs needed to complete fitting out of the 100s of km of cable, pipes, electronics, living spaces, hangers, radar and comms, SAMs.....if all goes well we should see sea trials in mid 2017....

the smaller ship is definitely not saryu class though about the same size.

adding a 15m plug behind the island will open up more parking space inside and on deck vs adding in the front...it makes sense to try a Vikrant-1A design and use the tools and skills already honed on this ship asap. the size of airwing would increase by some 7-10 units and so would living spaces and fuel storages for around 50,000t vs 40,000t

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 10 Jun 2015 20:59

Smaller ships are Tug Boats which are used for towing large ships near harbour while on entry or exit.

hanumadu · Post by **hanumadu** » 10 Jun 2015 21:05

Beautiful pictures. India should build more of these. Eventually if we build INS Vishal soon enough, we can always sell these to others.

The large island makes it look 'smaller', but it's quite a large ship.

I too felt the island was unusually large.

Rakesh · Post by **Rakesh** » 10 Jun 2015 21:07

chaanakya wrote:Smaller ships are Tug Boats which are used for towing large ships near harbour while on entry or exit.

Saar, I think Prithwiraj is asking about the vessel in the third Vikrant picture at the bottom right.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 10 Jun 2015 21:12

the italian cavour carrier which is the base design also has a large island. maybe its to accomodate additional battle staff and space for the leadership and ops of a marine contingent.
http://www.naval.com.br/blog/wp-content ... vour-1.jpg
the cavour has room for 140 C4 staff and 325 marines per wiki given its LHD kind of role with powerful 12 x EH101 helis.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 10 Jun 2015 21:15

The vessel in the Vikrant pic is probably this one...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aadesh_Cla ... rol_Vessel

Rakesh · Post by **Rakesh** » 10 Jun 2015 21:18

I doubt that. The vessel in that picture looks like a frigate if I am not mistaken.

shravanp · Post by **shravanp** » 10 Jun 2015 21:22

Assuming that this mighty ship will be operational for 50-somethin years, the time required to build them from scratch was hardly anything. Just 8 years or less. Order couple of em more!

Aditya G · Post by **Aditya G** » 10 Jun 2015 21:30

Prithwiraj wrote:
Ankar wrote:Wow ...Indian Navy should order one more asap
Anyone can identify the smaller ship birthed below..?

Sukanya Class OPV

member_20067 · Post by **member_20067** » 10 Jun 2015 21:35

Rakesh wrote:I doubt that. The vessel in that picture looks like a frigate if I am not mistaken.

That looks like Sukanya Class----

Rakesh · Post by **Rakesh** » 10 Jun 2015 21:39

The last Sukanya Class vessel was commissioned in 1993. It was followed by the Saryu Class, which also had the last vessel commissioning in 2014. That is probably a follow on to the Saryu Class. I am not aware of any follow on vessels to either class being under construction as that vessel in the picture definitely is.

Rakesh · Post by **Rakesh** » 10 Jun 2015 21:40

Lot more Vikrant pictures at the link below...

https://twitter.com/hashtag/INSVikrant?src=hash

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 10 Jun 2015 21:43

yes, I missed that. its OPV as above.

Is this one..Sukanya class.Aditya??

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 10 Jun 2015 21:43

could be a sukanya class undergoing refit.

member_20067 · Post by **member_20067** » 10 Jun 2015 21:55

Rakesh wrote:The last Sukanya Class vessel was commissioned in 1993. It was followed by the Saryu Class, which also had the last vessel commissioning in 2014. That is probably a follow on to the Saryu Class. I am not aware of any follow on vessels to either class being under construction as that vessel in the picture definitely is.

It is not under-construction--- it looks a refit--- or standard maintenance...according to Wiki--- two of Sukanya Class vessels have Kochi as home-port--- or may be they are getting some upgraded to be eventually handed over to friendly nations

tsarkar · Post by **tsarkar** » 10 Jun 2015 22:01

Identification Tips - Look for unique features, like how many Indian ships have a forecastle. Then how many have stairs from forecastle to foredeck. It is indeed a Sukanya class OPV undergoing refit.

Ships need periodic refits, tenders are issued, and go whichever dockyard is L1.

Rakesh · Post by **Rakesh** » 10 Jun 2015 22:03

You guys are right. My bad.

tsarkar · Post by **tsarkar** » 10 Jun 2015 22:12

Back to topic,

Building another ship of the same class will ensure a second ship at lower unit cost than a completely new design. Will reduce timelines as well.

Agree with Philip that rather than going for a new design, it would make sense to build the LPD on the same hullform & powertrain.

I don't think gas turbines burning fossil fuel will be operationally cheap for a 65K carrier. Designing & building a nuclear powered carrier will be time consuming.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 10 Jun 2015 22:21

Two more of the same class to be built over the next decade and half would do good before the Vishal class materializes. Lot of new technologies to develop or even absorb to operate in that class. Even the bigger dry dock required will not be ready before 2020 very likely.

Anurag · Post by **Anurag** » 10 Jun 2015 22:23

Bade wrote:Two more of the same class to be built over the next decade and half would do good before the Vishal class materializes. Lot of new technologies to develop or even absorb to operate in that class. Even the bigger dry dock required will not be ready before 2020 very likely.

Is that a statement or a wish list? If it's a statement do you have the source you can post?

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 10 Jun 2015 22:25

Dry dock news has been posted in the other thread...Two more of Vikrant class is a wish list of course.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Koc ... 290987.ece