Squinty dear, you forgot the URL. Please post it in the comments.
For the moderators,
trailing wife |
| Canuckistan's link added. AoS. |
The carrier INS Vikrant is being constructed at the Cochin shipyard and the vessel "will be floated out on Aug. 12 and taken to the repair dock to carry out remaining work," says Commo. K. Subramaniam, chairman and managing director of Cochin Shipyard Ltd. Hull work will be completed by June 2014, he adds.
The carrier is expected to be handed over to the navy for induction by January 2018. The 45,000-ton IAC is estimated to cost $5 billion.
The INS Vikrant is expected to fly the Mikoyan MiG-29K but the Indian Navy has also expressed an interest in the Rafale M (Naval variant), considered to be a much more capable aircraft.
India's second aircraft carrier, the 45,000-ton, 284-meter-long (932-ft.) INS Vikramaditya, formerly the Russian Kiev-class Admiral Gorshkov, is undergoing trials and is expected to be commisioned in the fall. The current sole carrier is the INS Virat, completed and commissioned in 1959 as the Royal Navy's HMS Hermes and then transferred to India in 1987.
| Viraat is supposed to stay afloat until 2020 -- numerous refits since she was transferred to the Indian Navy, according to Wikipedia. The Gorshkov keeps getting delayed in the refit and transfer; fall 2013 is the latest in a long set of dates. The final acceptance trials are supposed to start about now. |
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