The Aircraft Carrier, INS Viraat set sail for Kochi
this afternoon for Essential Repairs and Dry Docking (ERDD) at the Cochin
Shipyard. This is the last sailing
under her own propulsion as INS Viraat is
slated for decommissioning later this
year. Vice Admiral Girish Luthra,
Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Naval Command and other senior
officers of the command, visited the ship and interacted with the crew prior to
her departure. The carrier was escorted out of harbour by Fast Interceptor
Craft and helicopters from the Western Naval Command. It was indeed
an emotional moment for the Navy, as INS Viraat
leaves Naval Dockyard Mumbai, for
‘one last time’ under own power. The ship will be towed back to Mumbai on
completion of ERDD, for the decommissioning ceremony later this year.
INS Viraat was
commissioned into the Indian Navy
on 12 May 1987. The ship operated Sea Harrier (White Tigers - fighter air crafts), Seaking 42B (Harpoons - Anti Submarine helicopters) & Seaking 42C (Commando Carrier helicopters) and Chetak (Angles
- SAR helicopter) as her main air elements. The Sea
Harrier fleet was also recently decommissioned at Goa in May 16.
Under the Indian Flag, various
aircrafts have flown more than
22,034 hours from the decks of
INS Viraat. She has spent nearly 2,250 days at sea
sailing 5,88,288 NM (10, 94,215 KM). This implies that Viraat has been at sea for over six years covering the entire globe about
27 times. She played a major role in the Operation Jupiter in 1989 (Indian Peace Keeping operations in Sri Lanka) and Operation Vijay in the year 1999 (Kargil War).
The ship has also participated in various international joint exercises like
Malabar (with US Navy), Varuna (with French Navy), Naseem-Al-Bahar
(with Oman Navy) and has been an integral element of all major naval exercises.
The last operational deployment of the ship was for participation in
International Fleet Review (IFR-2016) at Visakhapatnam. Having served the country and the Navy
for nearly three decades, INS Viraat handed over the
mantle of carrier operations to INS Vikramaditya which was commissioned in the year
2013.
The second
aircraft carrier of the country has spent 29 years under the Indian
Flag and 27 years with the Royal Navy (United Kingdom). The ship
holds the Guinness Record for
being the oldest serving warship. INS Viraat is a Centaur-Class
Aircraft Carrier and served in the Royal Navy as HMS Hermes, which was the flag ship of Royal Navy during the Falk Lands
Campaign of 1982. She
is commonly referred to as the ‘Grand Old Lady’ among the Naval
community.
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RS/SDR/NV