After 23 years, INS Viraat on its last leg

The 28,000 tonne aircraft carrier INS Viraat will be withdrawn from service after 23 years in the water, with a survey to assess the internal condition of the carrier’s hull already being commissioned.

Results of the review will be examined at a high-level conference next month following which a call be taken on a time-bound withdrawal of the carrier. “How long the hull could service will be checked,” a senior Navy officer said.

The carrier was commissioned in the Royal Navy in 1959 and later inducted into the Indian Navy in 1987. Since then, the carrier has undergone four major and one minor refit, the last one in July 2011. The Navy intended to use the carrier till 2020, which far exceeds its shelf life, sources said.

However, with Russian origin aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya scheduled to be inducted on December 4, 2012, INS Viraat, in all likelihood, will be withdrawn from service before 2020.

Dwindling number of Sea Harrier jets, which were upgraded recently, that fly from INS Viraat’s deck has also contributed to the early retirement of the carrier. At present, India has less than a dozen operational Sea Harriers.

The upgraded aircraft are capable of air-to-air refueling and carrying “beyond visual range missiles.” In February, air defence capability of the Viraat and potential of the Harriers were tested in an exercise in a networked environment.

INS Vikramaditya, built at a cost of $2.35 billion, will have a life span of 40 years. The carrier will have 100 per cent new pipeline, 100 per cent new cabling and 80 per cent new hull. However, internal structure of the hull can not be changed.

After its takeover by India in December, the carrier is scheduled to stay in the Russian yard for some more time for the completion of “pre-passage technical works.” It will arrive in India in the first half of 2013.

A fleet of MiG-29K naval fighters designated for INS Vikramaditya have already arrived. The on-board arrester wire of the carrier has been designed to support the MiGs and indigenous naval version of the Light Combat Aircraft.