INS Vikrant’s Refit: Vertical Launch Barak-8 Missiles installed
New Delhi:
INS Vikrant, India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier, is now equipped with a sophisticated guidance radar and surface to air missiles – a move seen as a crucial step towards its operational deployment.
The Israel-designed MF-STAR (Multi-Function Surveillance, Track and Guidance Radar) and Barak-8 MRSAMs (Medium Range Surface to Air missiles) – are of Israeli origin. The MRSAM is manufactured under license in India.
The MF-STAR-MRSAM combo is already in use of frontline Indian destroyers of the Kolkata and Visakhapatnam class. The MF-STAR is designed to detect airborne targets such as aircraft, anti-ship missiles and cruise missiles which the MR-SAM is designed to shoot down at ranges in excess of 80 kilometres.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi commissioned the country’s first home-built aircraft carrier in September last year, underlying his government’s efforts to boost domestic production to supply a military deployed on two contentious borders.
The Indian Navy has planned to deploy INS Vikrant on the eastern seaboard during Milan-2024, a flagship international naval exercise hosted by Vizag next year.
The 45,000-tonne INS Vikrant was built at a cost of Rs 20,000 crore and was commissioned in September last year. At 262 metres long and 62 metres wide.
It can have 30 aircraft on board, including MiG-29K fighter jets and helicopters. The warship can accommodate a crew of nearly 1,600.
India has started negotiations with France for the acquisition of 26 Rafale-M aircraft which are meant to replace the MiG-29Ks onboard the Vikrant.
The warship was in the works for over a decade. Multiple phases of sea trials of INS Vikrant have been completed since August 21 last year.
With INS Vikrant, India has joined a select group of nations, such as the US, UK, Russia, China and France, that can design and build their own aircraft carriers.
