Two Cheers for INS Vikrant

NEW DELHI. India is the largest importer of conventional arms as per the Stockholm-based SIPRI.

- DR. SATYA NARAYAN MISRA

Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, heading a committee to suggest improving India's self-reliance quotient, assessed our SRI (Self Reliance Index) to be 30 percent only (1993) and suggested a roadmap to improve it to 70 percent by 2005. However, by 2005 it had crept only to 32 percent and is around 35 percent now.

It was redeeming to find that INS Vikrant, the indigenously built aircraft carrier inducted on 2nd September is 76 percent indigenously built. The 260 meters long, 60-meter-wide carrier is equivalent to two football fields. The steel used has been supplied by SAIL in tandem with DMRL, a DRDO laboratory, with an excellent track record in indigenization. The steel used is also equivalent to three Eiffel Towers.

India now has two Carriers, INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant, and the Navy is pitching for a third Indigenous Aircraft Carrier, much bigger and larger, to be possibly named as INS Vishal. The proposal continues to be under examination.

The Indian Navy has always aimed to be a Blue Water Navy, marking its mighty presence across the high seas. INS Vikrant is a big step in that direction.

GEARBOX AND OTHER INDIAN SYSTEMS

Most importantly, the Vikrant's gearbox has been manufactured by Elecon Engineering Company, an Indian MNC headquartered in Anand, Gujarat. The Control Movement system has also been supplied by Tata Power in collaboration with a Russian Company. Despite time slippages in both gearbox and Control Movement Systems, the indigenization of such critical sub-systems is highly commendable.