A slew of big-ticket projects, such as the aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, the launch of which was announced with much fanfare on Monday, will not see the light of day anytime soon. Not in the lifetime of this government and not even after the next government demits office.
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Take the case of the INS Vikrant, launched by Defence Minister A.K. Antony's wife, Elizabeth, on Monday. While the official spin is that the launch brackets India with a handful of nations capable of building a modern aircraft carrier, it will be at least another seven years before the INS Vikrant can be actively deployed by the Navy. The launch is, however, indicative of progress and the carrier remains the Indian Navy's great hope.
Experts who have worked on the project said that though 75 per cent of the ship's structure has been completed, a fair amount of work remains before it can be handed over to the Navy some time in 2018. The Navy will then take at least two years to make the aviation facility on the carrier fully active after a series of sea trials, said an officer involved with the project, claiming it would be safe to estimate a 2020 date for the full deployment of the aircraft carrier.
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Though Monday's event was termed a launch, it actually meant that the ship was taken out of the dry dock after the completion of its basic structure, which includes the ski-jump deck from where aircraft would take off. It will be moved to a deeper dock for integration of various systems and installation of 2,700 km of cabling.
The launch itself was delayed by a year and a half; it was earlier scheduled for December 2011. The ship moving out of dry dock also marks the end of the first phase of its construction, programme for which the Cabinet Committee on Security had committed around Rs.3,261 crore.
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The indigenous ship - to be powered by General Electric gas turbine engines and its design inputs provided by Fincantieri of Italy - was named after India's first aircraft carrier, the INS Vikrant which was originally the HMS Hercules of Britain's Royal Navy. Vikrant had taken active part in the 1971 Indo-Pak War.
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At 37,500 tonne, Vikrant, when fully operational will be around four hectares of Indian territory floating in the sea. That makes it the biggest ship to be constructed in the country. But when compared to other aircraft carriers it would be in the category that contains the fourth biggest. The US Navy operates nuclear-powered super carriers with displacements of over 1,00,000 tonnes. The French, British and Russians are building carriers in the 60,000-tonne category. India's own INS Vikramaditya, which is being retrofitted in Russia, is a 44,000-tonne ship.
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China's maiden aircraft carrier, Varyag, is around 55,000 tons. Last week the nuclear reactor that will propel home-made submarine Arihant in Visakhapatnam went critical, but delays have dogged the development of the ballistic missile-capable Arihant, which will form the third leg of India's nuclear triad, and the launch of Vikrant, which will fulfill the Navy's blue-water aspirations.
While politicians may be adding to their record of cutting ribbons, delays in big projects are costing the armed forces. The IAF would have phased out its MiG-21 fighters by now if the LCA had been delivered in time. If INS Vikramaditya had been inducted, the Navy would have been operating two aircraft carrier
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