INS Vikrant is India’s first indigenously designed and constructed aircraft carrier, and the largest warship ever built in India. Commissioned by the Indian Navy on 2 September 2022, the carrier is named after India’s first aircraft carrier, the erstwhile INS Vikrant (originally HMS Hercules), which served from 1961 until its decommissioning in 1997.[1] The new Vikrant is the lead ship of the Vikrant-class and was built under the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC-1) programme, making India only the fifth country in the world capable of designing and building an aircraft carrier of this size and complexity, alongside the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, and France.[2]
The requirement for a second operational aircraft carrier to replace the ageing INS Viraat was formally sanctioned in January 2003 under the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier programme, intended to give the Indian Navy sustained two-carrier availability across both the western and eastern seaboards.[3] With one carrier historically undergoing refit or maintenance at any given time, naval planners argued that only a three-carrier force (two operational plus one in refit) could guarantee continuous carrier presence in the Indian Ocean Region. Vikrant was conceived as the platform that would finally give India the ability to operate two carrier battle groups simultaneously, a capability realised for the first time in 2023 when Vikrant and INS Vikramaditya exercised together in the Arabian Sea.[4]
Design work was carried out by the Indian Navy’s own Directorate of Naval Design in collaboration with Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL), with initial concept studies going back to the early 2000s when CSL released illustrations of a roughly 32,000-tonne STOBAR carrier with a pronounced ski-jump bow.[5] Steel-cutting for the ship began in April 2005, but the programme suffered repeated delays caused by late finalisation of Russian-sourced specialty steel, propulsion integration challenges, and the sheer novelty of building a warship of this scale in an Indian yard for the first time. The keel was formally laid in February 2009, and the hull was launched on 12 August 2013. Fitting-out, sea trials, and weapons integration consumed nearly another decade before commissioning in September 2022 — roughly seventeen years after steel was first cut.[6] The final programme cost is estimated at approximately ₹23,000 crore (around US$2.7–3 billion), several times the original budget, a cost and schedule overrun that has been widely cited in Indian defence-procurement discussions as a case study in the difficulties of first-of-class indigenous shipbuilding.[7]
Vikrant displaces approximately 45,000 tonnes at full load and measures 262 metres in length with a beam of 62 metres. The ship is powered by four General Electric LM2500 gas turbines driving two shafts, giving a top speed of around 28 knots and a range of roughly 7,500 nautical miles at cruising speed.[8] Approximately 76 percent of the ship’s material, including specialty steel developed indigenously by the Steel Authority of India (SAIL) in partnership with the Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory, is sourced domestically, a figure the Navy and Ministry of Defence have repeatedly highlighted as evidence of the programme’s contribution to self-reliance in shipbuilding.[9]
Like Vikramaditya, Vikrant uses a Short Take-Off But Arrested Recovery (STOBAR) configuration, launching aircraft via a 14.3-degree bow ski-jump and recovering them using three arrester wires. The flight deck and two-level hangar can together accommodate a mixed air wing of roughly 30 aircraft, including fixed-wing fighters and a mix of airborne early warning, anti-submarine, and utility helicopters.[10] The STOBAR method imposes a takeoff weight penalty compared to catapult-assisted systems (CATOBAR), limiting the fuel and weapons load a fighter can carry on launch — a trade-off accepted in exchange for a simpler, more reliable, and cheaper launch system.
Vikrant’s self-defence suite includes the indigenous Barak-8/LR-SAM (Barak NG) surface-to-air missile system for area air defence, supported by the indigenous MF-STAR (or an equivalent active phased-array radar) for search and fire control, plus close-in weapon systems for point defence against sea-skimming missiles.[11] The ship’s primary offensive punch, however, comes from its embarked air wing rather than shipboard weapons, consistent with carrier doctrine worldwide.
Following the launch in 2013, Vikrant underwent an extended fitting-out period at CSL before beginning basin trials and, from August 2021, a series of sea trials to validate propulsion, seakeeping, and combat systems. The ship completed its final sea sortie in July 2022 before being formally commissioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Cochin Shipyard on 2 September 2022.[12] MiG-29K fighters made their first arrested landings aboard the carrier shortly after commissioning, followed by an extended flight-test campaign to clear the ship for full carrier air operations.
Vikrant’s air wing is presently built around the Navy’s MiG-29K/KUB fleet, the same aircraft embarked on Vikramaditya, supplemented by Kamov Ka-31 airborne early warning helicopters and MH-60R or Seaking-class anti-submarine helicopters.[13] The Indian Navy has separately been trialling the indigenous Tejas Naval variant for carrier operations from Vikrant’s deck, viewing it as an interim step while the dedicated Twin-Engine Deck-Based Fighter (TEDBF) is developed. The Navy has also evaluated foreign carrier fighters, including the Rafale-M and F/A-18 Super Hornet, as a bridging option before TEDBF matures.[14]
Vikrant achieved Full Operational Clearance in 2024 after logging over 750 hours of day and night flying operations, validating the ship’s ability to sustain round-the-clock carrier air operations.[15] In early 2023, Vikrant and Vikramaditya conducted a joint exercise in the Arabian Sea, marking the first time the Indian Navy operated two aircraft carrier battle groups simultaneously — a long-standing strategic goal of the IAC programme.[4] By March 2026, the carrier had logged its 1,000th arrested landing (“trap”), a milestone the Navy cited as evidence of sustained high sortie generation and pilot proficiency across its embarked squadrons.[16]
The Twin-Engine Deck-Based Fighter (TEDBF), under development by the Aeronautical Development Agency, is intended to eventually replace the MiG-29K as Vikrant and Vikramaditya’s primary strike fighter and to operate from India’s future third carrier, provisionally referred to as INS Vishal. TEDBF is expected to fly for the first time around 2026, with induction targeted for the early 2030s, and is designed to perform air superiority, anti-ship strike, and buddy air-to-air refuelling roles from a STOBAR deck.[17] Until TEDBF matures, the Navy faces a multi-year gap in fielding a next-generation carrier fighter, which analysts have flagged as a key vulnerability in sustaining India’s carrier air power beyond the 2020s.
Vikrant gives India sea-based air power projection across the Indian Ocean Region, extending the reach of maritime strike, air defence, and surveillance far beyond what land-based aircraft alone can provide, and reinforcing India’s position as the pre-eminent naval power in the region amid growing Chinese naval activity in the Indian Ocean.[2] A two-carrier force also provides operational redundancy: with one carrier available even while the other undergoes scheduled maintenance, the Navy can, in principle, maintain a continuous carrier presence.
The Vikrant programme has drawn sustained criticism in Indian strategic circles over its long gestation (roughly two decades from sanction to commissioning) and substantial cost overruns relative to the original 2003 budget.[7] Analysts have also pointed to the STOBAR configuration’s inherent takeoff-weight penalty compared to CATOBAR carriers used by the US Navy, and to the current dependence on an ageing MiG-29K fleet pending TEDBF’s entry into service. Some commentators have questioned whether India can sustain the industrial base and budget required to build a planned third carrier (INS Vishal) given the resources already committed to Vikrant and the broader naval modernisation programme.
Vikrant is presently the sole ship of her class in service; a planned sister ship was not pursued, with the Navy instead directing long-term carrier planning toward a larger, possibly CATOBAR-configured third carrier (IAC-2/INS Vishal). As of 2026, INS Vishal remains in the planning and design-study phase, with no confirmed keel-laying date, reflecting budgetary competition with submarine, destroyer, and aircraft procurement programmes.[2]
| Type | STOBAR Aircraft Carrier |
| Displacement | ~45,000 tonnes (full load) |
| Length | 262 m |
| Beam | 62 m |
| Propulsion | 4 × GE LM2500 gas turbines, 2 shafts |
| Speed | ~28 knots |
| Range | ~7,500 nautical miles |
| Air Wing | ~30 aircraft (MiG-29K, helicopters, future TEDBF) |
| Commissioned | 2 September 2022 |
| Builder | Cochin Shipyard Limited |