India: First indigenous aircraft carrier construction starts tomorrow

India starts construction on an Aircraft carrier it says here.

The 252-metre ship, displacing over 37500 tons, will be capable of operating 20 modern fighter aircraft of the MIG-29K, LCA (Navy) and Sea Harrier genre and upto ten helicopters of different types, a Naval release said today.

The ship is expected to be commissioned in 2012, it said.

'It's 2.5 acre flight deck with a maximum width of 58 metres, will enable launch of fighter aircraft using ski-jump for take off and arrester wire for landing, on an angled deck', the release said.

India already has had a couple of aircraft carriers. One of them, the INS Viraat (ex-HMS Hermes) is pictured:



(source here) More details and photos here. The Indian Navy also have the ex-Soviet carrier Kiev in"refit". Scroll down to see models of the ship after refit.

Also see an earlier post on the Indian Navy's future carrier plans here.

Hat tip: Naval Open Source Intelligence