INS Vikrant (from Sanskrit vikrānta, "courageous") was a of the Indian Navy. The ship was laid down as HMS Hercules for the British Royal Navy during World War II, but was put on hold when the war ended. India purchased the incomplete carrier in 1957, and construction was completed in 1961. Vikrant was commissioned as the first aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy and played a key role in enforcing the naval blockade of East Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.
In its later years, the ship underwent major refits to embark modern aircraft, before being decommissioned in January 1997. She was preserved as a museum ship in the Naval Docks in Mumbai until 2012. In January 2014, the ship was sold through an online auction and scrapped in November 2014 after final clearance from the Supreme Court.
History and construction
In 1943 the Royal Navy commissioned six light aircraft carriers in an effort to counter the German and Japanese navies. The 1942 Design Light Fleet Carrier, commonly referred to as the British Light Fleet Carrier, was the result. Serving with eight navies between 1944 and 2001, these ships were designed and constructed by civilian shipyards as an intermediate step between the full-sized fleet aircraft carriers and the less expensive but limited-capability escort carriers. Sixteen light fleet carriers were ordered, and all of them were laid down as what became the Colossus class in 1942 and 1943. The final six ships were modified during construction to handle larger and faster aircraft, and were re-designated as the Majestic class. The improvements from the Colossus class to the Majestic class included heavier displacement, armament, catapult, aircraft lifts and aircraft capacity. Construction on the ships was suspended at the end of World War II, as the ships were more than the Royal Navy's peacetime requirements. Instead, the carriers were modernized and sold to several Commonwealth nations. The ships were similar, but each varied depending on the requirements of the country the ship was sold to.
HMS Hercules, the fifth ship in the Majestic class, was ordered on 7 August 1942 and laid down on 14 October 1943 by Vickers-Armstrongs at High Walker on the River Tyne. After World War II ended with Japan's surrender on 2 September 1945, she was launched on 22 September and her construction was suspended in May 1946. At the time of suspension, she was 75 per cent complete. Her hull was preserved, and in May 1947 she was laid up in Gareloch off the Clyde. In January 1957, she was purchased by India and was towed to Belfast to complete her construction and modifications by Harland & Wolff. Several improvements to the original design were ordered by the Indian Navy, including an angled deck, steam catapults and a modified island.
Design and description
Vikrant displaced at standard load and at deep load. She had an overall length of , a beam of and a mean deep draught of . She was powered by a pair of Parsons geared steam turbines, driving two propeller shafts, using steam provided by four Admiralty three-drum boilers. The turbines produced a total of which gave a maximum speed of . Vikrant carried about of fuel oil that gave her a range of at ; and at . The air and ship crew consisted of 1,110 officers and men.
The ship was armed with sixteen Bofors anti-aircraft guns, but these were later reduced to eight. At various times, its aircraft consisted of Hawker Sea Hawk and BAe Sea Harrier jet fighters, Sea King Mk 42B and HAL Chetak helicopters, and Breguet Br.1050 Alizé anti-submarine aircraft. The carrier fielded between 21 and 23 aircraft of all types. Vikrants flight decks were designed to handle aircraft weighing up to , but remained the heaviest landing weight of an aircraft. Larger lifts were installed later. The ship was equipped with one LW-05 air-search radar, one ZW-06 surface-search radar, one LW-10 tactical radar and one Type 963 aircraft landing radar with other communication systems.
Service
Early service The Indian Navy's first aircraft carrier was commissioned as INS Vikrant on 4 March 1961 in Belfast by Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, the Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. The name Vikrant was derived from the Sanskrit word vikrānta meaning "stepping beyond", "courageous" or "bold". Captain Pritam Singh Mahindroo was the first commanding officer of the ship. Two squadrons were to be embarked on the ship - INAS 300 commanded by Lieutenant Commander B. R. Acharya which had British Hawker Sea Hawk fighter-bombers; and INAS 310 commanded by Lieutenant Commander Mihir K. Roy which had French Alizé anti-submarine aircraft. On 18 May 1961, the first Hawker Sea Hawk jet landed on her deck,followed by the first Alize on 23rd May. It was piloted by Lieutenant Radhakrishna Hariram Tahiliani, who later served as admiral and Chief of the Naval Staff of India from 1984 to 1987. Vikrant formally joined the Indian Navy's fleet in Bombay (now Mumbai) on 3 November 1961, when she was received at Ballard Pier by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
That December, the ship was deployed for Operation Vijay (the code name for the annexation of Goa) off the coast of Goa, with a contingent of 12 Sea Hawks. INS Vikrant was a part of the Carrier Task Group, including INS Delhi, INS Kuthar, INS Kirpan, INS Khukri, and INS Rajput. The carrier fleet did not see action during the conflict, only enforcing a maritime blockade in the Arabian sea to portuguese shipping. Vikrant did not see action and patrolled along the coast to deter foreign interference. The ship had conducted several maritime exercises off the coast of Kochi and Kutch until May 1965, when she was dry-docked to refit equipment. Consequently, she did not participate in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 the following September. She also made a brief deployment to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands following the conclusion of the war.
In June 1970, Vikrant was docked at the Naval Dockyard, Bombay, due to many internal fatigue cracks and fissures in the water drums of her boilers that could not be repaired by welding. As replacement drums were not available locally, four new ones were ordered from Britain, and Naval Headquarters issued orders to not use the boilers until further notice. On 26 February 1971 the ship was moved from Ballard Pier Extension to the anchorage without replacement drums. The main objective behind this move was to light up the boilers at reduced pressure, and work up the main and flight deck machinery that had been idle for almost seven months. On 1 March, the boilers were ignited, and basin trials up to 40 revolutions per minute (RPM) were conducted. Catapult trials were conducted on the same day.
The ship began preliminary sea trials on 18 March and returned two days later. Trials were again conducted on 26–27 April. The navy decided to limit the boilers to a pressure of and the propeller revolutions to 120 RPM ahead and 80 RPM astern, reducing the ship's speed to . With the growing expectations of a war with Pakistan in the near future, the navy started to transfer its ships to strategically advantageous locations in Indian waters. The primary concern of Naval Headquarters about the operation was the serviceability of Vikrant. When asked his opinion regarding the involvement of Vikrant in the war, Fleet Operations Officer Captain Gulab Mohanlal Hiranandani told the Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Sardarilal Mathradas Nanda:
Nanda and Hiranandani proved to be instrumental in taking Vikrant to war. There were objections that the ship might have severe operational difficulties that would expose the carrier to increased danger on operations. In addition, the three s acquired by the Pakistan Navy posed a significant risk to the carrier. In June, extensive deep sea trials were carried out, with steel safety harnesses around the three boilers still operational. Observation windows were fitted as a precautionary measure to detect any steam leaks. By the end of June, the trials were complete and Vikrant was cleared to participate on operations, with its speed restricted to 14 knots.
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
As part of preparations for the war, Vikrant was assigned to Eastern Naval Command, then to the Eastern Fleet. This fleet consisted of INS Vikrant, the two s and , the two Petya III-class corvettes and , and one submarine, . The main reason behind strengthening the Eastern Fleet was to counter the Pakistani maritime forces deployed in support of military operations in East Bengal. The ship transitioned from Bombay to Cochin, and then onwards to Madras, where for the most part of September and October 1971, she conducted flight training for her aviators.
An area of , confined by a triangle with a base of and sides of , was set up in the Bay of Bengal. Any ship in this area was to be challenged and checked. If found to be neutral, it would be escorted to the nearest Indian port, otherwise, it would be captured and taken as a war prize.
In the meantime, intelligence reports confirmed Pakistan was going to deploy the US-built . Ghazi was considered a serious threat to Vikrant by the Indian Navy, as Vikrants approximate position would be known by the Pakistanis once she started operating aircraft. Of the four available surface ships, INS Kavaratti had no sonar, which meant the other three ships had to remain in close vicinity, around close to Vikrant, without which the carrier would be completely vulnerable to attacks by Ghazi.
On 23 July, Vikrant sailed off to Cochin in company with the Western Fleet. En route, before reaching Cochin on 26 July, Sea King landing trials were carried out. After completion of the radar and communication trials on 28 July, she departed for Madras, escorted by Brahmaputra and Beas. The next major problem was operating aircraft from the carrier. The commanding officer of the ship, Captain (later Vice Admiral) Swaraj Prakash, was seriously concerned about flight operations. He was concerned aircrew morale would be adversely affected if flight operations were not undertaken, which could be disastrous. Naval Headquarters remained stubborn on the speed restrictions, and sought confirmation from Prakash whether it was possible to embark a flight of Alizé without compromising the speed restrictions. The speed restrictions imposed by the headquarters meant Alizé aircraft would have to land at close to stalling speed. Eventually the aircraft weight was reduced, which allowed several of the aircraft to embark along with a Seahawk squadron.
By the end of September, Vikrant and her escorts had reached Port Blair. En route to Visakhapatnam, tactical exercises were conducted in the presence of the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Eastern Naval Command. From Vishakhapatnam, Vikrant set out for Madras for maintenance. Rear Admiral S. H. Sarma was appointed Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet and arrived at Vishakhapatnam on 14 October. After receiving reports that Pakistan might launch preemptive strikes, maintenance was stopped for another tactical exercise, which was completed during the night of 26–27 October at Vishakhapatnam. Vikrant then returned to Madras to resume maintenance. On 1 November, the Eastern Fleet was formally constituted, and on 13 November, the ships centred the new Vikrant Carrier Battle group set out for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. To avoid misadventures, the plan was to sail Vikrant to a remote anchorage near Port Cornwallis codenamed Point X-ray, isolating it from combat. Simultaneously, deception signals would give the impression of Vikrant operating somewhere between Madras and Vishakhapatnam.Two Polnocny class LSTs, INS Guldhar and INS Gharial were repurposed as transports to supply fuel, ammunition and spare parts for the carrier's air wing and escorts. The SCI ship Deshdeep was chartered by the Navy to supply replenishments exclusively to the carrier under Operation Sangsar.