INS Vikramaditya’s Aircraft-Related Facilities Almost Ready

Designers of JSC Sevmash shipyard are resolving complex technical issues when working on Project 11430 aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya being modernized for Indian Navy, reports the shipyard’s press service.

For Sevmash, INS Vikramaditya is one of the major projects to be completed in 2012. Main weapon of the carrier are deck-based fighters MiG-29K/KUB and helicopters Ka-28/31. Without special air-technical facilities, none of aircraft is able to take off the deck. The shipyard’s designers along with representatives of Nevskoye Design Bureau and contracting parties are handling all technical problems related to the carrier’s air wing.

Retrofitting of the carrier is coming to its end; most of mechanisms and systems have been already assembled and are pending trials. Three arresters have been mounted; braking systems and damping devices have been installed under deck. Mooring trials of arresters are finished, another stage is flight tests. Assembling of aircraft weapon elevators is at the final stage; those systems deliver weapons from ammunition room to aircraft on the flight deck. Three standard elevators have been already repaired, and the fourth one was designed by Nevskoye bureau, built by Sevmash and mounted on the ship. Racks for missiles and bombs have been made and assembled in ammunition rooms.

Installation of four fire-resistant curtains in hangar was finished in Jan 2012; in case of fire, they divide the hangar into five isolated sections stopping fire propagation. Designers resolved technical issues related to alignment of underway replenishment system, assembling of aircraft towing device, and placement of external fuel tanks for the ship’s air wing.

INS Vikramaditya is expected to take sea for the first time and start trials on May 25.

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Naval Today Staff , February 22, 2012; Image: army