One of the INS Vikrant's manufacturers Cochin Shipyard on Monday said that the decision to build the next aircraft carrier has not yet been made official.

“It's not officially confirmed. There have been discussions happening, but the formal decision on the next aircraft carrier is not yet announced,” Madhu S Nair, Cochin Shipyard’s Chairman, and Managing Director told CNBC-TV18.

He, however, said that the new aircraft carrier is expected to be larger in size compared to INS Vikrant, India's first indigenously designed and built aircraft carrier, which was commissioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week in Kerala’s Kochi.

It should be noted that as many as 550 companies, including the likes of Bharat Electronics, Larsen & Toubro, and Kirloskar Pneumatic, Cochin Shipyard among others are involved in building aircraft carriers in India.

When can one expect the new carrier?

According to Nair, this will depend on whether the next carrier is similar to INS Vikrant in terms of platform size and scale. If so, adjustments can be made to capture the emerging technologies on the weaponry side and it will take about seven to eight years to manufacture once the decision is made and the plan goes to the floor.

However, if the required design is totally different, the timeline will vary and will likely be more.

INS Vikrant construction

Talking about the construction of INS Vikrant, which started in 2009, Cochin Shipyard's past experience in building large vessels helped in building the aircraft carrier.

“We had a strong experience in building large commercial vessels and more sophisticated functional commercial vessels for west Europe. So the experience in the technology was already there but the challenge here was the number of stakeholders, complexity, size and scale that was much more larger.

"When there are different stakeholders and systems involved, there are grey areas. So the ironing of grey areas, and getting the stakeholders to work towards a single purpose was the most important challenge. And this probably led to a lot of going back and forth during various stages," Nair said.

Cochin Shipyard’s total orderbook for defence segment stands at Rs 10,000 crore and it hopes to receive contracts from Europe.

“We have both the defence and the commercial orderbook. In the defence orderbook, we have eight ASW warfare, which we have already concluded with the navy, which is about Rs 6,500 crore order – all the 8 vessels together. And we are L1 in the next generation missile vessels, which is another six vessels,” he said.

Also Read: This is not the first INS Vikrant to serve Indian Navy — the backstory

The contracts are yet to be signed but the firm hope the contracts to come in a short period or probably in the next few months, Nair said. “So 14 vessels - it is roughly around Rs 10,000 crore,” he explained.

The company expects a marginal growth of 12-15 percent in revenue in the financial year 2022-2023, he said, adding, that the firm is witnessing good traction in the ship repair segment and that commercial orders are to be executed at a faster pace.

Also Read: INS Vikrant will significantly increase strategic capability of India, says expert

(Edited by : Abhishek Jha)

First Published:Sept 5, 2022 2:16 PM IST