Indigenous aircraft carrier may be named INS Vikrant

In line with the tradition of naming new warships of the same type on decommissioned ones, India's first Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) being built at Kochi may be named after the legendary INS Vikrant which the Navy operated successfully during the 1971 Indo-Pak war.

"It is a tradition in the Navy to name new warships of the same type on decommissioned warships. The idea is no warship ever dies. The new warship continues the legacy and is always referred to as a continuation of the decommissioned warship. In accordance with tradition, the IAC, in all likelihood, will be named INS Vikrant," navy officers said here on Monday.
    
However, they said, it was too premature, as the IAC building has just begun and it may take a while before a decision on its name is taken.

"First a list of names are suggested and then the president of India, who is the supreme commander of the Armed Forces, takes a decision and approves the name. The decision is likely to come just before its commissioning in 2015," he said.
    
The IAC is also being designed from the very beginning as India's first warship that will provide separate accommodation facilities for women naval personnel who may sail on warships once the government decides to allow them to do so.

At present, the Navy does not permit women officers to sail on board warships and the current fleet do not have separate facilities for women although there are 250 women personnel who are recruited only in the officer cadre.
  
Even if the permission is given to let women officers sail, no more than five officers would go on board a warship, be it the IAC, at any given time, the Navy officers said.

"To provide accommodation for this small number of women officers on existing warships, which already faces constraints of space and facility, will be difficult. Hence it was decided that new warships built indigenously should be designed with separate accommodation for women in mind," they said.

Interestingly, the Navy had, until a few years ago, posted women officers, including medical officers, on warships of various types such as Destroyers and Frigates.

Women officers and sailors do sail on board warships worldwide, including those of the US and French navies.
    
If the government decides to name the IAC as INS Vikrant, it would carry forward the memories of the exploits of India's first ever aircraft carrier, which brought the country laurels during the 1971 Indo-Pak war.
    
The original INS Vikrant, a Majestic class aircraft carrier, was serving the Royal Navy as HMS Hercules when India bought it in 1957 and commissioned it in 1961.

During the 1971 war that led to the creation of Bangladesh, Pakistan had actually claimed that it had already sunk the 20,000-tonne INS Vikrant, but the aircraft carrier was at that time in dry dock for a refit.
    
Despite a crack in its boiler, the steam-turbine powered Vikrant had launched an air strike at Chittagong harbour on December 4 using its eight Sea Hawk fighters, which forced Pakistan to abandon all plans of using its naval force on the
eastern seaboard.

The aircraft carrier was decommissioned in 1997 and converted into a museum in 1998. Currently docked in Mumbai, the warship-museum is open only for about 10 days every year during the Navy Week celebrations in December.