INS vikRamaDitya ShiNeS iN tROPical cONDitiONS

One of the chief concerns for Commodore Suraj Berry and his crew when they sailed into Indian waters this month, was that their 44,500-tonne vessel would have problems adapting to the dramatically different climate from what she was used to. But the INS Vikramaditya has sailed through, as it were, with remarkable robustness.

The Russian guarantee team on board the ship from Sevmash and Nevskoye Bureau had in fact voiced its concerns during trials last year in Severomorsk about how certain dynamic systems, hydraulics and other systems would function in tropical conditions. During her passage through the Arabia Sea, SPs learns that the crew conducted a planned series of tropical proof maneouvers to establish the vessels robustness in warmer weather — still winter, but far warmer than the severely freezing temperatures of North-West Russia.

SPs has also learnt that a fresh round of tropical proof trials will commence in May this year in the course of routine exercises to ensure that ambient heat prevalent in Indian waters doesnt in any way hamper a ship that has never ventured out of freezing weather before this month.