Cochin Shipyard to build 5 aircraft carriers

The keel of India's first indigenous aircraft carrier, to be the second warship christened INS Vikrant, will be laid on February 28 at Kochi. But it is now clear that while Cochin Shipyards will build three aircraft carriers in the current 37,500-ton category (the second and third are to be christened INS Viraat and INS Vishaal apparently), design work has already begun in earnest to develop and build two more aircraft carriers with not only much larger displacements, but possibly nuclear propulsion as well.

Unlike what the model in the photograph depicts, the new INS Vikrant will almost definitely be inaugurated with a flight of MiG-29Ks as its commissioning deck birds rather than the Naval Light Combat Aircraft (the Express has a report about this today). More details soon.

Photo by Shiv Aroor / LiveFist

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