India became an aircraft carrier nation with the commissioning of INS Vikrant. It was brought to Bombay on November 3, 1961 and later formed part of the Indian Fleet as a fully operational carrier. It was a light fleet carrier. Vikrant was one of the six ships of the Majestic class carrier which were laid down in various British yards in 1943. A group of about 150 officers and senior technical sailors were flown to the UK in batches in April/May 1957 for supervising the refit of Vikrant at Harland and Wolf Shipyard at Belfast. Towards the end of 1960, the official commissioning date of the ship was fixed as March 4, 1961. Reconstruction and moderanisation of Vikrant took about four years.

On February 16, 1961 the commissioning warrant was read by Capt P S Mahindroo, the Commanding Officer designate of Vikrant at a gathering of Indian officers and sailors and officials of Harland and Wolf. The first active operation in which Vikrant took part was for the liberation of Goa in December 1961. The first warlike operation of Vikrant was the Indo-Pak war of 1965. Unfortunately when the war started Vikrant was in the dry dock undergoing her periodical refit.

Vikrant’s real opportunity to show her prowess came in 1971 war. There is no doubt that many of the strikes by Vikrant’s aircraft not only hit many vital targets on shore, damaged and sank many ships and crafts, it instilled fear in the enemy. Vikrant and her aircraft made sure that no supply could reach the enemy by sea. The escape route of Pakistani land forces from East Pakistan by sea was completely cut off. These factors undoubtedly helped substantially to hasten the surrender of Pakistani troops. After de-commissioning from the service last year, INS Vikrant is to be transformed into a maritime museum. The museum project is to take about three years to complete.

After Vikrant, the second aircraft carrier INS Viraat was commissioned in the Indian Navy on May 12, 1987 with great hopes. The ship is all set to meet future challenges in the Indian Ocean zone with her operational prowess matching her name. Viraat is fitted with a ‘ski jump’ enabling the Sea Harrier VSTOL jump jets to take off from the flight deck with greater payload. The carrier would also have Sea King helicopters embarked for providing anti-submarine cover. The standard displacement of INS Viraat is 28, 500 tons and she is propelled by steam turbines with 76,000 shaft horsepower.