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Indian Navy - Bhāratīya Nau Senā
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Aircraft Carrier R22 - INS Viraat ex HMS Hermes (R12) |
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| 10/26 |
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Type, class:
Centaur
(UK) class aircraft carrier Builder: Vickers-Armstrong Shipbuilding, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, UK STATUS: Royal Navy: HMS Hermes (R12) Ordered: 1943 Laid down: June 21, 1944 Launched: February 16, 1953 Commissioned: November 25, 1959 Decommissioned: 1984 Sold to India: April 1986 Indian Navy: refit at Devonport Dockyard, Plymouth, UK renamed INS Viraat (R22) Recommissioned: May 12, 1987 Out of service: July 23, 2016 Decommissioned: March 6, 2017 Namesake: Virāṭa meaning Giant Motto: Jalameva Yasya, Balameva Tasya (He who rules over the seas is all powerful) Specifications: Displacement: 23,900 tons (standard) / 28,700 tons (full load) Lenght: 226.5 meters (743 feet) Beam: 48.8 m (160 ft) Draft: 8.8 m (29 ft) Speed: 28 knots (52 km/h), max. Range: 6,500 NMI (10,500 km) at 14 knots (26 km/h) Complement: ~1,200 (ship) Propulsion: 2 x Parsons geared steam turbines 4 x Admiralty 3-drum boilers with 400 psi 76,000 shp (57,000 kW) 2 shafts / 2 propellers Armament: 2 x 8-cell Vertical Launching System (VLS) for Barak 1 SAM missiles 2 x AK-230 Close-in Weapon System (CIWS) 2 x Bofors 40 mm AA guns Aviation: full flight deck with 12° ski-jump hangar deck up to 26 aircraft: British Aerospace Sea Harrier FRS 51 Westland Sea King Mk.42B/C HAL Chetak helicopter HAL Dhruv helicopter Systems: 1 x BEL/Signaal RAWL 02 air radar 1 x RAWS 08 air/surface radar 2 x BEL Rashmi navigation radars 1 x EL/M-2221 STGR fire control radar 1 x Plessey Type 904 radar 1 x FT 13-S/M Tacan system 1 x Graseby Type 184M hull-mounted sonar 1 x BEL Ajanta ESM system 2 x Knebworth Corvus chaff/decoy launchers |
| images |
 INS Viraat sailed under her own steam for the very last time - July 23, 2016                  British Aerospace Sea Harrier FRS 51  British Aerospace Sea Harrier FRS 51  ROYAL NAVY SERVICE  HMS Hermes (R12)  HMS Hermes (R12)  HMS Hermes (R12) |
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R22 INS Viraat: INS Viraat (R22) was an UK Centaur class light aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy. INS Viraat was the flagship of the Indian Navy until INS Vikramaditya was commissioned in 2013. The ship was completed and commissioned in 1959 as the Royal Navy's HMS Hermes, and decommissioned in 1984. She was sold to India in 1987. INS Viraat was commissioned into the Indian Navy on 12 May 1987, and served for almost 30 years. In February 2015, the Navy stated that Viraat would be decommissioned the following year. The last British-built ship serving with the Indian Navy, she was the oldest aircraft carrier in service in the world. On 23 July 2016, Viraat sailed for the last time under her own power from Mumbai to Kochi, where she was dry-docked and prepared for decommissioning. She was towed out of Kochi on 23 October, returning to Mumbai on 28 October, where she was laid up. Viraat was formally decommissioned on 6 March 2017. After the failure of plans to convert her into a hotel and museum, she was sold for scrap and planned to be broken up beginning in September 2020, but the scrapping was stayed by the Supreme Court of India after 40% of the body had already been scrapped. Indian Navy service: After evaluating vessels from several countries, the Indian Navy purchased the vessel in April 1986 and gave her an extensive refit at Devonport Dockyard in Plymouth, England, to allow for continued carrier operations into the next decade. New fire control equipment, navigation radars, improved NBC protection, and deck landing aids were installed in this refit. Boilers were converted to operate on distillate fuel. India Today in 1988 reported that then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi went to the Bangaram Atoll in Lakshadweep on a holiday with his family and other prominent politicians and media persons on board the INS Viraat. The allegation has been refuted by a retired Indian Navy officer, Commodore Ajay Chitnis, who was involved in planning former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's 1987 Lakshadweep trip. In September 1993, the engine room of the ship was flooded, putting the vessel out of service for several months. The vessel was back in service in 1995 and was fitted with a new search radar. Between July 1999 and April 2001, the ship completed another life-extension refit expected to extend her serviceability until 2010. This refit upgraded propulsion systems, added a package of sensors to sound emergency alerts and introduced modern communication systems. In addition, a long-range surveillance radar, weapon systems, and a new hangar with fire curtains were installed. As a consequence of this refit, the ship could not be made ready to fight during Operation Talwar, where operations were instead led by Delhi-class destoyers and Nilgiri-class Frigates. The ship underwent a fourth refit in Indian service from January to August 2009 at Cochin Shipyard, Kochi. The refit was expected to ensure her continued service in the Indian Navy until 2015, and the ship went through exercises in the Arabian Sea for a month and a half before being deployed to the Gulf of Aden. Navy officers later reported that the carrier might be kept in service until 2020, as two Indigenous Aircraft Carriers (IACs) seemed likely to be fully operational by then. On 12 July 2011, the ship arrived at Cochin shipyard for a short refit scheduled to be completed in two months and it was repainted. Indian Navy indicated that the ship could remain in service until 2020, provided that there are still Sea Harriers available for ship-borne operations. On 2 November 2012, the ship arrived in Kochi for the first part of a major two-phase refit. In the first phase, the hull was cleaned, probed for corrosion, worn hull plates were reinforced and received a fresh coat of corrosion-resistant paint. The carrier sailed to Mumbai for further upgrades to her machinery before rejoining the fleet in the summer of 2013. The refit would enable her to serve through 2016 and was the final major refit before her decommissioning. In August–September 2015, the ship underwent a short refit to reinforce her hull and inspection before her participation in the International Fleet Review in February 2016. In February 2015, the navy announced plans to decommission the ship in 2016 and began the process to obtain Defence Ministry clearance for the carrier's decommissioning. On 23 July 2016, Viraat sailed from Mumbai to Kochi for the last time under her own steam; by then, she had spent a total of 2,250 days at sea and had steamed a total of 1,094,215 kilometers. At Kochi, she underwent a month-long deactivation in preparation for decommissioning; during this period, her boilers, engines, propellers and rudders were removed. Deactivation was completed on 4 September, and the carrier was towed back to Mumbai on 23 October for her formal decommissioning ceremony. Viraat arrived in Mumbai on 28 October and was laid up. On 6 March 2017, she was decommissioned. Viraat was formally decommissioned on 6 March 2017. Her weapons systems and operational equipment were to have been removed by mid-2017. source: wikipedia |
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