| content | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 INS Vikrant |
|
| Career (UK) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Hercules (R11) |
| Namesake: | HMS Hercules |
| Builder: | Vickers-Armstrong/Harland and Wolff |
| Laid down: | 12 November 1943 |
| Launched: | 22 September 1945 |
| Commissioned: | laid up before completion |
| Renamed: | HMS Hercules (R49) |
| Fate: | refitted/modernized and sold to India |
| Career (India) |  |
| Name: | INS Vikrant |
| Builder: | Vickers-Armstrong/Harland and Wolff |
| Commissioned: | 4 March 1961 |
| Decommissioned: | 31 January 1997 |
| Fate: | decommissioned, preserved as a floating museum at Mumbai. |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Majestic-class light carrier |
| Displacement: | 15,700 tons standard, 19,500 tons full load |
| Length: | 192 m (630 ft) waterline, 213.3 metres (700 ft) extreme |
| Beam: | 24.4 m (80 ft) waterline, 39 metres (128 ft) extreme |
| Draught: | 7.3 m (24 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 2 Parsons geared steam turbines 40,000 hp (30 MW), 4 Admiralty three-drum boilers |
| Speed: | 23 knots (43 km/h) |
| Range: | 12,000 nautical miles (22,000 km) at 14 knots (26 km/h) |
| Complement: | 1,075 usual, 1,340 wartime |
| Armament: | 16 × 40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns (later reduced to 8) |
| Aircraft carried: | Sea King Mk 42B and Mk 42C HAL Chetak Sea Harrier FRS.51 Breguet Alizé Br.1050 |
INS Vikrant (Hindi: विक्रान्त) (formerly HMS Hercules (R49))[1] was a Majestic-class light aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy. Her keel was laid down on 12 November 1943 by Vickers-Armstrong [2] on the Tyne and was launched on 22 September 1945.
Completion work was carried out in Belfast but construction was suspended after the end of World War II and she was laid up for possible future use. Her pennant was changed from R11 to R49.
In January 1957 she was sold to India, and construction was completed at Harland and Wolff [3] with an extensively modernized design, including an angled deck with steam catapults, a modified island, and many other improvements.
Contents |
History
The Indian high commissioner to the United Kingdom, Vijayalakshmi Pandit, commissioned her as INS Vikrant on 4 March 1961 while she was still at Belfast, Northern Ireland. The name Vikrant was taken from Sanskrit vikrānta meaning "stepped beyond", i.e. "courageous", "victorious". Captain Pritam Singh was the first commanding officer of the carrier[4]. She formally joined the Indian fleet at Bombay on 3 November 1961, when she was received at Ballard Pier by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and other high-ranking dignitaries.
The Vikrant's initial airwing consisted of British Hawker Sea Hawk fighter-bombers and a French Alize anti-submarine aircraft. On 18 May 1961 the first jet landed on board, piloted by Lieutenant (later Admiral) R H Tahiliani.
India-Pakistan Wars, 1965, 1971
In 1965, Pakistan claimed that it had sunk the Vikrant.[5] At the time, however, the ship was under refit in dry dock.
Despite a crack in a boiler, she saw real combat against East Pakistan in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971[6][7]. Stationed off the Andaman & Nicobar islands along with Indian naval ships, INS Bramhaputra and INS Beas, the Vikrant redeployed towards Chittagong[8] at the outbreak of hostilities. The morning of December 4, 1971, the eight Sea Hawk aircraft on the Vikrant launched an air raid on Cox's Bazaar from 60 nm(nautical miles) away. That evening, the air group struck Chittagong harbor. Future strikes targeted Khulna and Mongla. A PTI message is supposed to have read, "Chittagong harbor ablaze as ships and aircraft of the (Pakistan) Eastern Naval Fleet bombed and rocketed. Not a single vessel can be put to sea from Chittagong". Air strikes continued till December 10, 1971.
Given naval intelligence that indicated the intent of the Pakistan Navy to break through the Indian Naval blockade using camouflaged merchant ships, the Sea Hawks struck shipping in the Chittagong and Cox's Bazar harbors, sinking or incapacitating most merchant ships there.
The PNS Ghazi submarine was deployed to sink the INS Vikrant. However, she sank off Visakhapatnam harbor under mysterious circumstances[9]. During the war the crew of Vikrant earned two Mahavir Chakras and 12 Vir Chakras.
Subsequent Service
Vikrant was given an extensive refit, including new engines and modernization between 1979 and 3 January 1982. Between December 1982 and February 1983 she was refitted again to enable her to operate BAe Sea Harriers which replaced the Sea Hawk. After the retirement of the Breguet Alizé from carrier service in 1989, she received a 'ski jump' for more efficient use of her Sea Harriers.
Vikrant was India's only carrier for over twenty years, but by the early 1990s she was effectively out of service because of her poor condition. Even following major overhauls she was rarely put to sea. She was formally decommissioned on 31 January 1997 and is preserved as a museum at Mumbai. She is the only World War II-era British-built aircraft carrier to be preserved.
See also
- List of aircraft carriers
- List of ship launches in 1945
- List of ship commissionings in 1961
- List of ship decommissionings in 1997
- INS Viraat
- INS Vikramaditya
References
- ^ The State of War in South Asia by Pradeep Barua
- ^ Pink ice: Britain and the South Atlantic Empire By Klaus Dodds
- ^ Aircraft Carriers: The World's Greatest Naval Vessels and Their Aircraft By Richard Jones, Chris Bishop, Chris Chant, Christopher Chant
- ^ AsiaRooms.com - Indian Museum Ship (Vikrant) Mumbai
- ^ GlobalSecurity.org - R 11 Vikrant
- ^ Aircraft Carriers: The World's Greatest Naval Vessels and Their Aircraft By Richard Jones, Chris Bishop, Chris Chant, Christopher Chant
- ^ YouTube.com - Great battles : Liberation of Bangladesh 2 of 2
- ^ YouTube documentary
- ^ Seapower: A Guide for the Twenty-first Century By Geoffrey Till
External links
- Bharat Rakshak's note on the INS Vikrant
- Operations aboard the INS Vikrant in the Bay of Bengal - Article on the 1971 war ops as published in an anniversary online paper The Liberation Times.
- Video of INS Vikrant operations.
|
|||||||||||||||||
