Aboard were 1,110 souls and systems included an air-search radar, a surface-search radar and various other suites. Armament was strictly defensive in nature and revolved around 16 x 40mm Bofors autocannons. The warship could embark up to twenty-three aircraft depending on make and model.
After commissioning in 1961, Vikrant was sent to Tamil Nadu for her notable voyage and, in 1965, India entered into war with neighboring Pakistan but Vikrant was being refitted during the commitment. As such her warplanes were operated from land bases during the war - which ended with inconclusive results for both sides. In 1971, the two nations found themselves again at odds and went to war once more. This time, Vikrant was able to operate her air wing as normal and launched ground strikes and Combat Air Patrols (CAPs) led mainly by her jet-powered Hawker Sea Hawk fighter-bombers (detailed elsewhere on this site). Anti-Submarine / Anti-Ship sorties were handled by Breguet Alize prop-driven aircraft (detailed elsewhere on this site). Unlike the war of 1965, the war of 1971 ended as a decisive Indian victory and Vikrant played a major role in suppressing Pakistani Army ground movements/resupply in the east and blockading East Pakistan as a whole. Her aircrew also claimed several Pakistani navy and mercantile vessels during the fracas.
Twice the aircraft carrier was put into a period of refitting and modernization intended to keep her viable for the near-future and the first occurred in 1979-1981 and the second in 1987-1989. This led to an update of her propulsion scheme (new boilers), radar fit, Anti-Aircraft (AA) defense and operations center. She was then given new equipment to support operation of the newly-acquired fleet of BAe Sea Harrier (FRS.Mk 51) jump-jet aircraft from Britain. This led to an angled "ski jump" being built at her bow to facilitate getting the Harriers airborne in short order (the steam catapult was deleted). Another change to the air arm came with the introduction of the Westland "Sea King" (Mk 42) helicopter and these were used to succeed the Alize aircraft in same mission role - however, the Alize continued to operate alongside the Sea Kings into the 1990s.
In 1991 and 1992-1994, the warship was refitted again and continued to operate her aircraft stable in an active manner. With her best days behind her, it was decided to decommission the vessel in 1997. She became a museum ship from 2001 until 2012 before a lack of funding truly ended her. In 2013 the ship was auctioned off and sold in 2014 - ultimately scrapped in November of the latter.
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