Mumbai : The country’s largest and most powerful warship, ‘INS Vikramaditya’, has been sailing without an anti-missile defence system and a ‘close-in weapon system’ which is considered a serious shortcoming for a warship.
According to officials, perforce, the Navy is considering cannibalizing an old warship to equip the aircraft carrier with a defence system.
Ever since ‘INS Vikramaditya’ was brought from Russia and commissioned into the Indian Navy in November 2013, the warship has been a sitting duck against an air attack. This essentially means that it cannot protect itself against hostile aircraft, missile or a drone attack.
Normally, aircraft carriers operate with a ‘battle group’ of warships which include destroyers, frigates and fast attack crafts which are equipped with an air defence system. However, the ‘INS Vikramaditya’ does not have this protective umbrella.
The Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral RK Dhowan, who was in the city on Monday for the launch of the indigenous destroyer ‘INS Visakhapatanam,’ admitted as much. He told this reporter: “We are aware that ‘INS Vikramaditya’ is not equipped with an anti-missile defence system and a close-in weapon system.” He added, “Plans to give an air defence to the aircraft carrier are in progress.”
‘INS Vikramaditya’, in its previous avatar as ‘Admiral Gorshkov,’ had a Russian-made missile shield. Russian authorities were eager to sell the shield along with the war vessel to India.
Sources in the Indian Navy said, “However, the missile shield was very costly. In the same amount, a more sophisticated and a modern missile shield was available in the market. A few of Indian Navy ships like ‘Mumbai’, ‘Kolkata’ and ‘Shivalik’ are already equipped with this technology. So the Indian government did not buy it with the warship.”
He added, “One of the warships in the Western Naval Command is going to be decommissioned soon and the missile shield technology from the decommissioned ship will be fitted on INS Vikramaditya.”
