INS Vishal: Best of Russia and United States
Published December 22, 2015
SOURCE: Vishal Asolkar / FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG
India’s second indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC-2) aka INS Vishal might still be in the preliminary design stage, but it is pretty evident now that Two Cold war Bitter Rivals will join hands with India in the development of Next Aircraft carrier for Indian Navy which will help it dominate seas beyond its area of influence.
Russia’s Neva Design Bureau is closely working with Indian Navy’s Naval Design Bureau (NDB) which has been tasked to design and develop Biggest Warship India has ever developed in Country.
INS Vishal with a displacement of around 65,000 tons will be powered by Nuclear propulsions which will be able to operate nearly 50 fixed and Rotor aircraft from its Decks and will be equipped with Modern Next Generation Air Defense Systems and Advance Surveillance and monitoring radars.
INS Vishal will be a Unique ship since it will see for the first time active participation of Russian and US Defence companies coming together to work on developing Single weapons platform for India.
Russian Design team most likely will be roped in Ships Design aspects and will also provide consultation in the development of many key technologies for Ships Nuclear propulsions and safety mechanism, While the United States will be roped in integration of Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) along with aircraft launch and landing mechanism for which the US along with India will need Russian help to certify Russian-supplied Mig-29K fighters for operations from its decks .
The United States will also provide consultation and also supply key sensors and help in integration of many weapons systems in the Super Structure of the warships.
while the US and Russian team will not have any direct interaction with each other it will still require a great deal of detail planning in design stage its selfs to avoid complication in the various system coming in from different countries which will require some level of informal exchanges before actual works begin.
Both countries have different Naval design philosophies in the development of warships and some keynotes have to be exchanged for a proper understanding of tools and machinery for which Indian Naval planners have to work together.