India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier begins sea trial

India's first indigenous aircraft carrier "Vikrant", the largest and most complex warship to have been built in the country, today set out for sea trial.

The launching of the ship from Cochin Shipyard's building dock has put India into a select club of countries which have the capability of designing and building an aircraft carrier, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

The new ship's propulsion plants will be put to rigorous test in the sea, in addition to the trials of various navigation, communication and hull equipment.

The aircraft carrier is a mini floating city with a flight deck area covering the size of two football fields.

The ship is 262m long, 62m at the widest part, and has height of 59m including the superstructure. There are 14 decks in the ship which has over 2,300 compartments designed for a crew of around 1,700 people, including specialised cabins to accommodate women officers.

The ship is made by India's largest public sector shipyard, Cochin Shipyard Limited.

It is the first time in India that a ship of the size of an aircraft carrier is completely modelled in 3D and production drawings extracted from the 3D model.

The ship is a mammoth steel structure of 21,500 tonnes of special grade steel developed indigenously and used in Indian naval ships for the first time. The enormity of the ship can be gauged from the approximately 2,000km of cabling, 120km of piping and the 2,300 compartments available onboard.