Over a year after its initial launch, the maiden indigenous aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy will be re-docked at Cochin Shipyard by the end of January 2013, for resumption of work.
Once back at the building bay for completion of work in the first phase, the carrier — currently weighing about 17,500 tonnes — will have its propulsion, shafting, generation and other engineering equipment fitted over the next five to six months before it gets floated out again.
Quite a bit of structural work, probably up to the flight deck, which would give the vessel some shape, will also happen during this phase of construction.
INS Vikrant II under construction at Kochi ( Image Courtesy - thehindu.com )
The project had hit a mechanical roadblock when reduction gearboxes made by the Gujarat-based Elecon Engineering Company Limited fell short of requirements. “Further construction of the carrier wasn’t possible without the huge gearboxes going in. The systems have now passed muster,” said a Navy source.
As the first IAC, to be named INS Vikrant on completion, undergoes birth pangs at the Cochin Shipyard, a second carrier, presumably a bigger one weighing almost 60,000 tonnes, is on the drawing board at the Directorate of Naval Design in New Delhi.
News Courtesy - thehindu.com
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