India's magnificent second aircraft carrier lifted anchor on Saturday afternoon for her final voyage from Mumbai to Kochi, powered by her own boilers, prior to her scheduled de-commissioning.
Having served the nation for nearly three decades, world’s longest serving aircraft carrier INS Viraat will have its last operational journey when it sails from Mumbai to Kochi on Saturday. All the on-board system of the 28,000-tonne aircraft will be removed at Cochin Shipyard, except electricity and fresh water plant.
The underwater hull will be reinforced to withstand vagaries of saline water for the next 20 to 30 years
if it turns into a museum as proposed by the Andhra Pradesh Government. The Defence Ministry has yet to take call on the AP Government’s request. After refurbishment, tug boats will bring back the ship to Mumbai after three months for formal decommissioning from service.
India acquired this ship from the UK in 1987 and rechristened it INS Viraat from HMS Hermes. It served in the Royal Navy for more than 25 years after joining it in 1959 and took part in the Falkland War. At present, the carrier has the distinction of being the oldest operational warship in the world with more than 60 years of active service.
Giving details of the refurbishment plans, Navy officials said here on Thursday that weapon systems, radars, propulsion, shafts, engines, refrigeration plants and boilers will be taken out. The Navy plans to cannibalise most of the functional parts like refrigeration system, electronic warfare and computer system and fit them on to other warships. Four Sea King and five Chetak helicopters, part of the INS Viraat’s arsenal, will begin flying sorties from other warships within the next few weeks. The eight Sea Harrier fighter jets on board the carrier were decommissioned in May this year.
After the propulsion and other systems from the lower part of the ship are taken out following its dry docking, the engineers will seal the hull and paint it afresh. Officials said the ship will be then ready for proposed museum.
Majority of 1,500-strong crew has already started relocating to INS Vikrant weighing more than 40,000 tonnes now under construction at Cochin Shipyard. It is the first indigenously designed aircraft-carrier and once INS Viraat is finally decommissioned, the entire team will then join the new ship. It is likely to go for sea trials at the end of 2018 and is expected to join service in 2019.
After INS Viraat is decommissioned, the Navy will have to guard its area of interest with only one available Russian built aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya. It joined service three years back after undergoing major refit at Russia and cost the exchequer nearly three billion dollars.
0 comments:
Post a Comment