NEW DELHI
\nIndia will formally commission its first home-built aircraft carrier on Friday, the culmination of 17 years of construction and tests as the country seeks to catch up with regional rival China and its far larger naval fleet.
\nThe INS Vikrant, however, will not have its own fleet of fighter jets on deck and instead will rely on a few Russian-designed aircraft borrowed from India\u2019s only other carrier, the INS Vikramaditya.
\nFrance\u2019s Dassault and Boeing are locked in a race to provide the Indian government with over two dozen jets earmarked for the Vikrant, a 262 metre-long vessel built at the state-run Cochin Shipyard in southern India.
\nDesigned by the Indian Navy, the carrier is the largest warship to be built in the country, able to accommodate a crew of around 1,600 and operate a fleet of 30 aircraft, including fighter jets and helicopters. More than 75 per cent of the ship\u2019s components are indigenously procured, with half a dozen major industrial firms and over 100 smaller businesses providing equipment and machinery, according to India\u2019s defence ministry.
\nThe Vikrant will be commissioned on Friday by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after completing almost a year of sea trials. \u201cThe final proof of the pudding is the ship\u2019s performance during sea trials. While it seems to be behaving pretty well, stability wise, aircraft operations have yet to commence. One hopes it will be a success story all the way,\u201d former chief of India\u2019s naval staff admiral Arun Prakash said. \u201cBecause of our typically disjointed decision-making process, the selection of an aircraft got de-linked from the carrier project, and a decision is yet to be taken,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW DELHI India will formally commission its first home-built aircraft carrier on Friday, the culmination of 17 years of construction and tests as the country seeks to catch up with regional rival China and its far larger naval fleet. The INS Vikrant, however, will not have its own fleet of fighter jets on deck and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280779,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-280973","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n