Astonishing. The Indian Navy has revealed that it plans to keep its sole current aircraft carrier INS Viraat in service till 2018. The ship, incidentally, turned 25 in Indian service last year, and has been through a series of refits. More details shortly.
On the decision – Utter madness! The Navy needs to understand if this will be effective. May be they are looking at augmenting till the time Vikrant II gets comissioned. But I don't see the logic.
On Virrat – Fantastic ship. God bless you for the service you have provide our nation.
It can be used as helicopter carrier till 2020 as it has enough space for fielding more than 20 fully loaded choppers of different types.
I don;t believe they have much of a choice in this matter really but more of a compulsion given the delayed delivery of the IAC-1, now slated for delivery around Q4 of 2018 , possibly even later.
dear shiv, i'm off the context. just wanted to ask you , isn't it appropriate to take up the case on your blog regarding the anamolies of pay and allowances of service personnel that PM announced from the red fort last independence day and is yet to be sorted out even with the next independence day approaching. the case is lying with the cabinet secreteriat for the past nine months for consideration of the cabinet and its not being put up at all, at the behest of you know who. think it over, may be worthwhile.
Good decision India has one of the longest oceans. So we need to monitor everywhere. But we need to do more maintenance.
what else can teh Navy do?
I bet they are indenting for chewing gum and string to hold the old girl together!
@Shiv Aroor
theres nothing to say 'woah' about it. The ship has been upgraded to such an extent that it can operate as a LHD without Harriers till the 4 MRSV/LHD for which RFI was issued sometime back arrive.
Btw dont forget INS Jalashwa is more than 40 yrs old but we are operating it after buying it from USN as a LHD
Thanks
Joydeep Ghosh
Every year it is in Cochin Shipyard for refit and each year they claim to have increased it's life by 5 years . There are some serious issues with its boilers and also the propeller shaft . In the Cochin shipyard workshop there will always be a spare propeller shaft of Viraat being repaired for fitting into the ship when it returns for yet another refit. From the poor condition of it's engine room and all i dont think it is of any practical use for the navy other than simply being a cash cow for Cochin Shipyard which is the only one capable in India of repairing this ship .
Why the astonishment? An aircraft carrier is an expensive investment. The navy should get as much mileage out of it as possible. It should remain in service until the day that aircraft carriers become obsolete!
Should have got some gr9.s when RN retired them…the present fleet of SHARs serve only to offer a token fixed wing capability…their credibility in combat would be next to nothing….
Good call..
what's a ship without any experienced crew to operate.
When INS Vikramaditya joins & INC Vikrant joins in there will be a need of 3000+ trained crew to be in full capacity. INS Virat will cater to the same.
if some one sneaks to the age of some of their aircraft carriers then their is nothing like Woah.All that matters is whether you can maintain a plateform or not and i think india needs atleast three aircraft careers in service to secure it's vast coastal boundaries.
The Viraat has been masquerading as an Aircraft Carrier for more than fifteen years now. Just investigate on how many take offs and landings have taken place from the deck in the past 15 years and how many at night, and you will have your answer. That's why no one in the neighborhood takes it seriously anyway…..Cheers guys operate it for another 25 years, it achieves nothing but an utter waste of manpower and resources