INS Vikramaditya in home waters!
The New Year brought with it a massive ‘gift’ for the Indian Navy in the shape of a 44,500 tonne aircraft carrier, the INS Vikramaditya. Escorted by units of the Western Naval fleet, including the venerable aircraft carrier INS Viraat and including the guided missile destroyers INS Delhi and INS Mumbai, guided missiles frigates INS Teg, Talwar and Trikand, INS Godavari, INS Subhadra, and the fleet tanker INS Deepak, the Navy’s newest warship entered the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and proceeded to its home port, INS Kadamba, in Karwar (Karnataka) on 7 January 2014.
It is for the first time in two decades that the Indian Navy has two aircraft carriers in service, and this fact makes it the second such in the world (the US Navy of course are the giants with 10 super carriers in service while the French, Russian, Brazilian, Spanish, Italian, Thai and Chinese Navies have one each : the British Royal Navy still awaits its new aircraft carriers – see Vayu Issue VI/2013).