KOCHI: India debuted its first locally made aircraft carrier on Friday, a milestone in government efforts to reduce its dependence on foreign arms and bolster maritime security.
The INS Vikrant, one of the world’s biggest naval vessels at a length of 262 metres, will formally enter service after 17 years of construction and tests.
“Today, INS Vikrant has filled the country with a new confidence, and has created a new confidence in the country,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the ship’s commissioning ceremony in southern Kerala state.
“We’ve joined the league of those select nations who can construct such large aircraft carriers at home,” he added.
Around 1,600 sailors will crew the Vikrant, which will initially service fighter jets redesignated from India’s only other aircraft carrier.
Modi’s government has sought to wean the country off its dependency on foreign military purchases and build a domestic defence hardware industry.
It has invested heavily in local construction, with more than three dozen other naval ships and submarines currently being built in the country’s shipyards.
The outlay comes at a time of increasing concern among military top brass over the strategic challenge posed by China’s increasing presence in the Indian Ocean.
“The security concerns of the Indo-Pacific and the Indian Ocean region were ignored in the past but it is our top priority today,” Modi said.
Friday’s commissioning ceremony also saw the unveiling of a new naval flag without a British colonial symbol left over from India’s colonial era.
The new ensign replaces a prominent Saint George’s Cross, the national flag of England, with the royal seal of the warrior-king Chhatrapati Shivaji.
“It is a historic date, we’ve made history and discarded a sign of our subjugation,” Modi said during his address. — AFP
