Home-made steel to toughen aircraft carrier

Visakhapatnam: In what could be termed as a major contribution of the laboratories under the Defence Research and Development Organisation in the indigenisation of the defence manufacturing sector, specialised steel developed domestically by the Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory is being used in building the aircraft carrier INS Vikrant.

The aircraft carrier being built at Cochin Shipyard is expected to be commissioned into the Indian Navy in 2018 and will be based at Vizag. Till now, India used to depend on hull steel and steel bars imported from Russia to build ships.

“The development of hull steel by the DMRL, will contribute for the indigenisation efforts of the defence manufacturing sector, especially after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ call.  The hull steel technology developed by DMRL has been transferred to SAIL run steel plants and Essar from where thousands of tonnes of steel used for INS Vikrant has been produced,” DRDO director general (naval systems and materials) V. Bhujanga Rao, told Deccan Chronicle.

According to the ministry of defence, the main switch board, steering gear and water tight hatches have been manufactured by Larsen & Toubro at Mumbai and Talegaon, Pune, the high capacity air conditioning and refrigeration systems have been manufactured in the Kirloskar company’s plants in Pune, most pumps have been supplied by Best and Crompton, Chennai. The massive gear box is supplied by Elecon in Gujarat , thus making the INS Vikrant, the first 100 per cent indigenously built, aircraft carrier.