INS Vikrant, the largest ship ever built in India’s maritime history is named aptly after its predecessor INS Vikrant, which was India’s first Aircraft Carrier.

The commissioning of INS Vikrant today by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a defining moment. This will also be accompanied by the unveiling of the new ensign (NISHAAN) of the Indian Navy.

The first indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant has been named after its predecessor, India’s first aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, which served the Indian Navy for 36 long years and played a very important part in the 1971 war.

Transformation from a buyers to a builders Indian Navy.

A proud custodian of the maritime history of India, the Indian Navy will now get its indigenous large aircraft carrier (LAC) INS Vikrant. Designed and built at the Cochin Shipyard Limited in Kerala, the LAC INS Vikrant cost Rs. 20,000 Crore and 13 years to built.

Work on INS Vikrant began in February 2009. After 4 and half years, in August 2013, the ship (still under work in progress) was placed in the waters. The basin trial of INS Vikrant began on November 2020 and the sea trial was completed in July 2022. Cochin Shipyard handed over the mammoth INS Vikrant to the Indian Navy, catapulting the elite maritime force to the niche club of the global Naval powers and facilitate India’s standing as a “Blue Water Navy” with capabilities to operate in the deep seas.

Interesting facts about INS Vikrant

• INS Vikrant with a displacement of 43,000 tonnes when fully loaded, is set to be the seventh largest among carrier class globally.
• INS Vikrant consist of 14 decks with 2,300 compartments which can carry around 1,500 sea warriors.
• Automated galleys that can produce upto 5,000 meals a day.
• Eight generators inside IAC INS Vikrant can light up most of Kochi.
• Largest ever warship manufactured in India.
• The manufacturing of INS Vikrant generated employment for 2,000 CSL personnel and 13,000 employees in ancillary industries.
• 80-5% of the project cost has already been ploughed back into the Indian economy.
• The total cable length inside INS Vikrant will stretch from Kochi to Delhi.
• The total steel used in INS Vikrant can be used to build 4 Eiffel Tower.
• More than 76% of the ship’s total cost is indigenous.
• India joins UK, US, France, Russia and China as another major superpower capable of designing and constructing aircraft carriers.

The new Naval Ensign

The Indian Navy came into existence during the British reign of India. Since then the ensign of the Indian Navy has undergone many amendments, but all the designs carried a flavor of the colonial times. However, the new ensign of the Indian Navy carries no such sign. The new ensign carries the Indian National Tricolor along with a seal that has been shaped on the seal of Maharaj Shivaji, one of the earliest maritime warriors.