Indian Navy has moved a mega proposal to the government for building the second indigenous aircraft carrier to be constructed by the Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL).
A proposal has been received by the Defence Procurement Board (DPB), under the Indian Defence Ministry for building and acquiring the second indigenous aircraft carrier which would be known as the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier-2, defence officials told ANI.
Displacing 45,000 tonnes, and estimated to cost of around Rs 40,000 crore, proposal for the project is yet to be cleared by the Defence Procurement Board (DPB).
Once the proposal is approved, it will be sent for final approval by Defence Acquisition Council (DAC).
The programme is expected to create several thousand direct and manifold indirect jobs through the Cochin Shipyard Limited in Kerala when the work on the IAC-2 is approved by the government.
Noteworthy, the first indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant was commissioned by Prime Minister Modi on 2 September 2022.
The carrier is the first to be built in India and was constructed by the CSL.
The total cost of the project was approximately Rs 23,000 crore (US$3.2 billion).
To be noted that INS Vikrant’s air group can consist up to 26 Rafale M fighters and up to 4 Kamov Ka-31, or 2 HAL Dhruv NUH or 4 MH-60R helicopters.
It is 262-metre (860 ft) in length, with a top speed of 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph), and endurance of 7,500 nautical miles (13,900 km; 8,600 mi).
The ship has 2,300 compartments manned by 1,700 seamen.
It has a hospital complex, cabins for female officers, eight kilometres (5.0 mi) of corridors, and eight generators capable of lighting up a city of 2 million people
The Indian Navy has been requesting for having a fleet of at least three aircraft carriers to maintain at least one carrier on each coast with one in refit.
Also, with three aircraft carriers, the Indian Navy would also be keeping pace with all the navies deployed in the Indo-Pacific region.
