Once integrated, INS Vikramaditya will bring transformational capabilities to the Indian Navy and will be a ‘game changer’.
At the time of attaining our Independence our visionary leaders saw the
centrality of a powerful Navy and set us on the right course by
envisaging an Indian Navy centred on aircraft carriers for sea control
in our expansive areas of maritime interest. INS Vikrant, India’s first
aircraft carrier was acquired from Great Britain and commissioned on 04
Mar 1961. INS Vikrant was a Majestic class CATOBAR (Catapult Assisted
Take Off but Arrested Recovery) carrier and operated Sea Hawk fighters,
Alize (Anti-Submarine Warfare) aircraft and Seaking helicopters.
Consistent with its vision, India next acquired HMS Hermes, a Centaur
class STOVL carrier and a veteran of the Falkland War. INS Viraat was
commissioned on 12 May 1987 as India’s second aircraft carrier and
India’s first STOVL carrier operating the Sea Harrier aircraft. Soon
after the acquisition of INS Viraat, INS Vikrant was also converted from
a CATOBAR carrier to a STOVL (Short Take-off and Vertical Landing)
carrier. INS Vikrant was decommissioned on 31 Jan 1997, after 36 years
of glorious service under the Indian ensign. For almost a decade India
had two aircraft carriers and the Indian Navy was fully cognisant of the
criticality of having an aircraft carrier available for deployment on
each seaboard to fulfil the Navy’s assigned tasks. In recognition of the
importance of aircraft carriers, the Indian Navy had already started
exploring the possibility of indigenously designing and constructing an
Aircraft Carrier, this project took off in right earnest in the late 90s
as the Air Defence Ship was conceived. However, given the long
gestation period of such projects, the search for a replacement for INS
Vikrant gained momentum as its decommissioning drew closer.
It was at this juncture that Russia offered Admiral Gorshkov to the
Indian Navy. Negotiations over acquiring the 44,500 ton Admiral Gorshkov
started in 1994. Various high level delegations who had assessed the
ship had independently concluded that the ship’s hull was in good
material state and would be worth considering for exploitation in the
Indian Navy with a suitable mix of aircraft.
Signing of the Contract
After detailed negotiations the two countries signed a memorandum of
understanding in Dec 1998 during a visit by Russian PM Yevgeny Primakov.
The Inter-Governmental Agreement which included acquisition of Project
11430 (Admiral Gorshkov) was signed between the Federation of Russia and
the Union Government of India on 04 Oct 2000. After a Detailed Project
Development Review, contractual negotiations and thereafter price
negotiations, Government approved the acquisition on 17 Jan 04 at a cost
of Rs 4881.67 Cr for the complete package of R&R of the ship,
spares, infrastructure augmentation and documentation. The deal was
signed on 20 Jan 04 and the effective date of the contract was
established as 24 Feb 04. The R&R of the ship commenced from 09 Apr
04.
The repair and refit was being undertaken by FSUE Sevmash, the state
owned shipyard at Severodvinsk, Russia. The R&R was scheduled to
have been completed within 52 months. Though the refurbishment process
was started in right earnest, soon it was realized that the work and
equipment requiring replacement was significantly higher than originally
estimated. Entire length of cable, large portions of steel hull,
motors, turbines and boilers, etc. would have to be completely replaced
with resulting in cost escalation and time slippage.
A protracted renegotiation for arriving at a mutually acceptable price
for refurbishment was held in the ensuing months. Finally, in Dec 2009,
the Indian and the Russian sides arrived at an agreement on the final
price of delivery of this ship. More significantly, it was agreed that
the delivery of the ship would take place only in the year 2012. Though
the re-negotiated price was significantly higher than what was
originally agreed upon, the fillip that the addition of Gorshkov would
give to the Blue water requirements of Indian Navy compensated the
greater price.
The Journey of Admiral Gorshkov (nee Baku)
Baku on Commissioning
The journey of ‘Vikramaditya’ began as the Kiev class aircraft carrying
cruiser ‘Baku’. Developed from the Moskva class helicopter carrying
guided missile cruisers the Kiev class was a pioneering Soviet era
design, featuring a flight deck arrangement capable of operating fixed
wing VTOL fighters for the first time in the Soviet Navy. Baku was
constructed by Chernomorsky Ship Building Enterprise, Nikolayev (now in
Ukraine). About 400 enterprises and nearly 1,500 - 2,000 workers from
different republics of USSR took part in building of the ship. The ship
was commissioned on 20 Dec 1987. Conceived as an armed cruiser, Baku was
heavily armed with twelve Anti-Ship Missile launchers, ten gun mounts
of differing calibre and rocket launchers and depth charges. The air
element comprised Yak-38 aircraft.
‘Baku’ was envisioned to be a full-fledged aircraft carrier by Admiral
SG Gorshkov, however, due to conflicting dynamics at that time, the ship
turned out as the last ‘compromise’ ship of the Kiev series. After her
development and construction, it became clear to the Soviet leadership
that the vision of Admiral Gorshkov of a classical aircraft carrier with
ship borne aircraft as the primary weapons was indeed the most logical
way ahead to develop the surface forces. On 07 Nov 1990, the ship was
named after Admiral Sergey Georgiyevich Gorshkov.
Baku/Admiral Gorshkov began its active operational service with the
Northern Fleet and was deployed in the Mediterranean Sea and remained in
active service till 1992 and thereafter continued in service albeit
with limited operational deployments. The ship was finally
decommissioned in 1996.
The Transformation
Project 11430
Admiral Gorshkov was put in hibernation after her last sailing in 1995.
With most of her equipment lying un-utilised since then, the task of
breathing life and converting her from a VTOL (Vertical Takeoff and
Landing) missile cruiser carrier to a STOBAR aircraft carrier involved
substantial degutting, equipment removal, refit and re-equipping. The
major works envisaged were modification of flight deck to include
ski-jump and arrester gear; modification of bulbous bow, aft aircraft
lift & ammunition lifts; modification of 1750 out of 2500
compartments; installation of new main boilers; installation of new and
additional Diesel Generators; replacement of existing distilling plants;
fitment of Reverse Osmosis plants, new AC plants and Refrigeration
plants and installation of new sensors and equipment. In 2007, as the
refit and repair of the ship was in progress, the yard realized that the
scope of work was much larger than initially estimated and so a revised
timeline for completion of the task of modernization was agreed upon by
both Russian and Indian sides. With a revised timeline the delivery of
ship was expected by end 2012.
A Peek at the Scope of Work
Creation of Ski Jump
Putting the 900 tonne Ski Jump in place
Creation of the flight deck with structural modification to convert the
VTOL carrier to a STOBAR carrier was the most intricate and arduous.
The task involved installation of Sponsons to increase the breadth at
the Flight Deck and a fitment of a new 14 degree Ski jump, strengthening
of arresting gear area, strengthening of run way area and elongation of
the aft end to generate the required length of landing strip aft of the
arresting gear. In all 234 new hull sections were installed to achieve
the desired shape. Total steel work for carrying out structural
modification on flight deck amounted to 2500T.
Modification of Super structure
The superstructure was modified to accommodate a host of sensors and
equipment such as radars, Electronic Warfare suite and Action
Information Organisation system and other systems to suit the
requirements of ship borne fighters and rotors. A very unique structural
modification that was carried out on board the ship was the
installation of the aft mast for accommodating various communication
antennae.
Machinery Modification
Vikramaditya in its older avatar was powered by boilers fuelled by
heavy oil, FFO. The re-equipping included replacement of these old
boilers with state of the art boilers utilizing LSHSD and providing a
steam capacity of 100 Tonnes per Hour each.
Electrical re-cabling
The initial estimate included replacement of only 1400 kms of old cable
with new cables. However, as degutting progressed and confined spaces
were accessed it was realised that an additional 900 kms of cable will
need to be replaced. Finally the mammoth task involved replacing 2300
kms of cable, which is a little short of half of the entire coastline of
India.
Outfitting
The modification plan of Vikramaditya was not restricted to the gears
and sparks alone. The change also necessitated revamp of the living
spaces and galleys to cater to the needs of the Indian men in uniform.
Of 2500 a total of 1750 compartments were completely re-fabricated. A
host of new galley equipment suited for preparation of Indian food like
dosas and chapatis was also installed.
Arrestor and Restraining Gears
The conversion of VTOL carrier to STOBAR involved fitment of three 30m
wide arrester gears and three restraining gears. Installation of these
equipment not only involved modification and strengthening of the flight
deck but also changes to internal layout of compartments.
Summary
To sum it up, a total of 234 new hull sections were fabricated using
2500 tonnes of steel which is almost equivalent to the standard
displacement of a mid-size frigate. Repair and re-equipping of
Vikramaditya to give a new lease of life as a full- fledged carrier was
no mean task and was probably as demanding a task as constructing a
similar tonnage ship from the drawing board. The task was enabled by the
expertise and experience of the Russian designers and yard workers
working hand in glove with Indian experts. The extreme cold weather
conditions of winter only made the work environment harder. At the end
of this refit, spanning a little short of a decade, Vikramaditya has
metamorphosed into a fully capable and potent platform.
Rise of the Phoenix …
Big & Agile
Vikramaditya sailed for the first time under own power at 1200 hrs on 10 Jun 12, after a gap of about 17 years.
The New Avtar ‘Vikramaditya’
An aircraft carrier carrying potent long range multi-role fighters is a
platform inherently deigned for power projection. In as much as
‘Gorshkov’ was transformed to create ‘Vikramaditya’, so also
Vikramaditya will transform the face of the Fleet Air Arm of the Indian
Navy.
STOBAR Carrier
Displacement : 44,500 T
Length OA : 284 m
Maximum Beam : 60 m
Speed : over 30 kts
04 propellers
powered by 08 Boilers,
Aircraft component : MiG 29K, Kamov 31, Kamov 28, Seaking, ALH, Chetak
Vikramaditya, the floating airfield has an overall length of about 284
meters and a maximum beam of about 60 meters, stretching as much as
three football fields put together. Standing about 20 storeys tall from
keel to the highest point, the sheer sight of this 44,500 tonnes mega
structure of steel is awe inspiring. The ship has a total of 22 decks.
With over 1,600 personnel on board, Vikramaditya is literally a
‘Floating City’. Associated with this large population is a mammoth
logistics requirement - nearly a lakh of eggs, 20,000 litres of milk and
16 tonnes of rice per month. With her complete stock of provisions, she
is capable of sustaining herself at sea for a period of about 45 days.
With a capacity of over 8,000 tonnes of LSHSD, she is capable of
operations up to a range of over 7,000 nautical miles or 13000 kms.
Preparing for sea trials
To enable this 44,500 tonnes floating steel city to cut through the
choppy seas with speeds of up to 30 knots, she is powered by 08 new
generation boilers of steam capacity of 100 TPH at a very high pressure
of 64 bars, generating a total output power of 180,000 SHP. Vikramaditya
heralds in a new generation of boiler technology with a very high level
of automation. These high pressure and highly efficient boilers power
four enormous propellers, each greater in diameter than twice the height
of an average male. Such a four propeller - four shaft configuration is
another first in the Indian Navy.
The 06 turbo alternators and 06 diesel alternators onboard generate a
total electricity of 18 megawatts to power various equipment of the
ship, enough to cater to the lighting requirement of a mini city. The
ship also houses 02 Reverse Osmosis plants providing an uninterrupted
supply of 400 Tons per day of fresh water.
An extensive revamp of sensors including fitment of Long range Air
Surveillance Radars, Advanced Electronic Warfare Suite makes the ship
capable of maintaining a surveillance bubble of over 500 kms around the
ship.
The ship has the ability to carry over 30 aircraft comprising an
assortment of MiG 29K/Sea Harrier, Kamov 31, Kamov 28, Sea King,
ALH-Dhruv and Chetak helicopters. The MiG 29K swing role fighter is the
main offensive platform and provides a quantum jump for the Indian
Navy’s maritime strike capability. These fourth generation air
superiority fighters provide a significant fillip for the Indian Navy
with a range of over 700 nm (extendable to over 1,900 nm with inflight
refueling) and an array of weapons including anti-ship missiles, Beyond
Visual Range air-to-air missiles, guided bombs and rockets.
Expansive Flight Deck during night
The ship is equipped with state of the art launch and recovery systems
along with aids to enable smooth and efficient operation of ship borne
aircraft. Major systems include the LUNA Landing system for MiGs, DAPS
Landing system for Sea Harriers and Flight deck lighting systems.
The heart of the operational network that infuses life into the combat
systems onboard the ship is the Computer aided Action Information
Organisation (CAIO) system, LESORUB-E. LESORUB has the capability to
gather data from ship’s sensors and data links and to process, collate
and assemble comprehensive tactical pictures. This state of the art
system has been specifically designed keeping in mind the essential
requirement on the carrier for fighter control and direction.
One of the most prominent equipment fitted on the super structure is
the Resistor-E radar complex. Resistor-E is the automated system
designed for providing air traffic control, approach/landing and short
range navigation for ship borne aircraft. This complex along with its
various sub-systems provides navigation and flight data to ship borne
aircraft operating at extended ranges from the mother ship. The
precision approach guidance system aids the fighters on approach to be
directed down to a distance of 30 meters short of flight deck.
Vikramaditya also boasts of a very modern communication complex, CCS MK
II, to meet her external communication requirement. Installation of Link
II tactical data system allows her to be fully integrated with the
Indian Navy’s network centric operations.
