Author: Yuri does not take revenge today, and it is forbidden to reprint without permission
To enter service in 2022, India's first domestically produced aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, has accelerated its sea trials. On the afternoon of October 24, it left the Cochin Shipyard, where it was built, for the second time since August this year, and began sea trials, although some key equipment related to the take-off and landing of carrier-based aircraft remained unmounted.
Yesterday afternoon, the Vikrant set sail again. It left the Cochin Shipyard for the Arabian Sea for Phase 2, the 2nd sea trial mission, and from the pictures released by the Indian Ministry of Defence, the Cochin Shipyard was not directly near the sea, but on a river (actually a lagoon), the sea was very turbid, the water weeds were everywhere, probably only slightly cleaner than the Ganges, which was in stark contrast to a brand-new aircraft carrier.
Photo: 2 sea trials
The Vikrant was its first four-day sea trial on August 4 this year. It has been 8 years since its first launch in 2013 (when the island was not installed), and this time from the subject point of view, it should still be the most basic power test, to test the reliability of the 4 US-made General Electric LM2500 + gas turbines on the ship composed of all-fuel combined power (COGAG), although it is directly purchased, after all, and the Russian steam turbine power system on the "Vikramaditya" aircraft carrier is still very different, from the Indian media released video, This time the ship conducted a high-speed navigation test.
Picture: The sea is really a mess
Therefore, the aircraft carrier with a full load displacement of 40,000 tons did not carry any carrier-based aircraft or full-size models of carrier-based aircraft to sea. And from the high-definition picture, it is likely that it has not yet installed the blocking cable, although in the middle of the 3 blocking cable fixed position, there is a gray imprint, but it should not be installed, after all, the aircraft carrier test is also a system engineering, from the power test to the radar electronic system and weapons test usually at least 10 times more, the carrier aircraft is actually a ship, I am afraid it is the last, at least until next year before the ship is delivered into service.
Picture: The middle one does not look like an installed block cable if viewed carefully
The blocking cable is a necessary equipment for conventional landing aircraft carriers. Although it looks like only a few steel ropes, but because of the need to hook at least 20 tons of carrier-based fighters, it is wrapped in hemp rope (early) or nylon (late) outside the steel cable (core), woven in a unique way and coated with lubricating oil, there is a set of more complex hydraulic damping buffers and pulleys under the blocking cable, the MK7 Mod3 type blocking cable used by the Nimitz class of the United States can make a carrier-based aircraft with a speed of more than 130 kilometers per hour and weighs 30 tons in an instant. Stop accurately on the flight deck within 100 meters.
Photo: For the first sea trial, the 3 interceptor cables were apparently not installed
Because of this, blocking cables, like catapults, are made by very few countries. Among the Western countries, only the United States and the United Kingdom have the ability to manufacture blocking cables, and on the aircraft carrier "Admiral Kuznetsov", the Soviet Union/Russia for the first time has the ability to manufacture blocking cables. The cable of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier de Gaulle is the American MK7.
Image: The Nimitz class uses a hydraulic barrier cable type MK7 mod3
India obviously does not have the ability to manufacture special marine equipment such as blocking cables.
"Vikrant" and "Vikramadia" new and old 2 aircraft carriers, its blocking cables are directly bought from Russia, as early as 2014, russia's "United Shipbuilding Company" under the St. Petersburg Proletarski Zavod Institute disclosed that it has signed a contract for the "Vikrant" aircraft carrier to manufacture blocking cables, the institute is the only aircraft carrier blocking cable research and development unit in Russia, once for the "Vikramadia" manufactured a blocking cable, considering the use of Russian-made blocking cables instead of American system, The Indian side may be considering the Use of MiG-29K carrier-based fighters.
Photo: The Ford class switched to the Advanced Blocking System (AAG), replacing the hydraulic system with an electric turbine
Judging from the pictures, the blocking cable fixture of the "Vikrant" aircraft carrier seems to be different from before, I don't know if it is a new design, and it is not installed now, nor do I know whether the money is not in place, or the technology is not in place, after all, the blocking cable on the "Admiral Kuznetsov" aircraft carrier has been broken.