Vikrant, India's First Home-Built Aircraft Carrier: This Is What's On Board
NDTV
With the Vikrant's entry, India can deploy an aircraft carrier on both its eastern and western seaboards.
India will formally commission its first home-built aircraft carrier on Friday, the culmination of 17 years of construction and tests as the country seeks to catch up with China and its far larger naval fleet.
The INS Vikrant however will not have its own fleet of fighter jets on deck and instead will rely on a few Russian-designed aircraft borrowed from India's only other carrier, the INS Vikramaditya.
France's Dassault and Boeing are locked in a race to provide the government with over two dozen jets earmarked for the Vikrant, a 262 metre-long vessel built at the state-run Cochin Shipyard.
The Navy and Defence Ministry did not respond to questions from Reuters.
