INS Viraat to retire on March 6

Days before INS Viraat is phased out, the navy on Monday said the indigenously built aircraft carrier would be ready for sea trials by the end of 2018.

On March 6, INS Viraat, the second aircraft carrier in the Indian naval fleet, would be decommissioned in Mumbai in the presence Admiral Sunil Lanba, Chief of the Naval Staff.

The first aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, was decommissioned on January 31, 1997. As efforts to convert her into a maritime museum failed,



the ship had to be scrapped at Darukhana in Mumbai. As of now, INS Vikramaditya is the only aircraft carrier.

The new carrier, which has also been named Vikrant — in memory of the original British-built carrier Vikrant — is being constructed at the Cochin Shipyard Limited in Kochi.“We hope that she (Vikrant) would be ready for sea trials by the end of 2018,” said Vice Admiral Girish Luthra, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Western Naval Command.