New Delhi, September 2, 2022, Friday
History of Indian Navy has been made. On September 2, the fully indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant has re-entered. Thus, this ship has been rebuilt but has been named INS Vikrant, hence it is being considered as a rebirth of INS Vikrant which was decommissioned in 1997.
Talking about the earlier INS Virat, the ship was bought from Britain in 1957. Her original name was HMS Hercules. In 1961, India renamed it INS Vikrant and was transferred to the Navy. The war between India and Pakistan in 1971 was very important. At that time, he led a naval fleet along the border of Bangladesh, which was considered East Pakistan. Retired in 1997 after 36 years of service in the Navy.
Now INS Vikrant has gone to sea in a new form becoming the pride of India. There is a huge difference in the features of the new and old Vikrant. The length of the old Vikrant was 210 meters while the new one is 260 meters long. The gross weight of the new Vikrant is 45000 tonnes which is double that of the previous Vikrant. It has taken 17 years to build the new Vikrant ship and cost 20 thousand crore rupees. The ship can carry 1700 people and can land more than 30 fighter jets and helicopters.
This is why the new Vikrant ship has been described as a floating city in the sea. Its deck is 18 floors. From a distance, the 18-story building appears to be floating. A 16-bed hospital for emergency treatment has also been built in this ship. The ship can stay at sea continuously for 45 days after refuelling.
Along with this, India has joined the list of countries like America, Britain and China which can build warships by themselves. According to an information, naval radar system has not been installed in Vikrant so deployment of warships along with aircraft will take time.
However, experts believe that India is still lagging behind China. China has three aircraft carriers, 48 destroyers, 43 frigates and 61 corvettes. While India has 10 destroyers, 12 frigates and 20 corvettes. With the entry of Vikrant, the strength of the Navy has increased, but there is still a lot of progress to be made in naval research compared to China.
