On successful completion of a series of progressive sea trials, the ship is scheduled to be commissioned as INS Vikrant later this year

India’s first Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) Vikrant has set sail to undertake complex maneuvers in another set of sea trials.

After two successive high profile visits – the President and Vice President of India – within a span of less than two weeks, IAC Vikrant is heading for the next set of sea trials, said a statement of the Ministry of Defence.

Both dignitaries, having reviewed the progress and conveyed their satisfaction and expressed their best wishes to all the stakeholders involved in the project, the Ministry stated.

Having gained adequate confidence in the ship’s abilities, the IAC now sails to undertake complex maneuvers to establish specific readings of how the ship performs in various conditions, the statement informed.

In addition, various sensor suites of the ship would also be tested, it added.

On successful completion of a series of progressive sea trials, the ship is scheduled to be commissioned as INS Vikrant later this year, as the nation commemorates ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’, it further added.

While the maiden sea trials in August 2021 were to establish propulsion, navigational suite and basic operations, the second sea trial later in October-November witnessed the ship being put through its paces in terms of various machinery trials and flight trials, the statement noted.

The ship, in fact, was out for 10 days proving its sustenance in the very second sortie, it mentioned.

Various seamanship evolutions were also successfully cleared during the second sortie, the statement said.

The IAC has been a success story on numerous counts, it recalled.

According to the statement, be it the case of ‘Atmanirbharta’ wherein 76% of the equipment is indigenously sourced or the close engagement between the Design teams of the Indian Navy and the Cochin Shipyard Limited – a high-point in the largest and most complex warship ever to be built in the country.

That the ship has been able to carry out basic flying operations from its very first sortie itself is a landmark in Indian warship construction history, it said.

Despite a surge in COVID cases in the country and the resultant challenges, the combined teams from multiple organizations associated with the project, are upbeat and committed to meet the timeliness, the MoD statement highlighted.