India's first indigenously-built aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, built at a cost of around ₹20,000 crore, has 76 per cent content sourced from the Indian industry which has led to development of new ancillary industries and generation of employment opportunities, Indian Navy Vice Chief Vice Admiral SN Ghormade said on Thursday.

Besides augmenting Navy's strategic capability ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, the Navy said technologies evolved in constructing the warship would be used for civil purposes and products can be exported as well.

"A major spin off of this is the development and production of indigenous warship grade steel DMR 249A and DMR 249B through a partnership between Indian Navy, DRDO and Steel Authority of India Limited, which are being extensively used for construction of all warships being built in India and can be exported too," Vice Admiral SN Ghormade told reporters.

Similarly, other components and features, including explosion proof automatic emergency lamps, radio frequency transparent shielding used for Whip Aerials, cabling of the carrier, have been sourced through indigenous sources, he pointed out to highlight the domestic industries contribution.

Self reliance

Vice Admiral SN Ghormade also stated that over 500 Indian firms and 100 MSMEs pitched in for making the aircraft carrier over 13 years, beginning with keel laying in February of 2009. It also generated employment opportunities for almost 15,000 across various segments, including direct employment of 2,000 personnel at CSL.

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Ghormade dubbed the commissioning of Vikrant into Navy on September 2 at Cochin by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi as “a Golden letter day” for the nation, Navy and the indigenous shipbuilding industry and “a true testimony” of the government’s for ‘AatmaNirbharta (self reliance)’.

The INS Vikrant, designed by Navy's Warship Design Bureau and built by PSU Cochin Shipyard Limited, will position India into the elite club, housed by US, UK, France, Russia and China, to have niche capability of indigenously design and built aircraft carriers in excess of 40,000 tonne displacement. One of the major component sourced from outside are four LM 2500 gas turbines manufactured by General Electric of USA.

India now has indigenous ecosystem to take a next step forward to build a new aircraft carrier for Navy to fulfil its operational requirement.

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