Thursday, April 16, 2015

INS Vikramaditya Undergoing Refit with Barak-1 missiles, CIWS

LR-SAM at Aero India 2011

INS  Vikramaditya is undergoing minor ‘refit’ at its home base, Karwar, south of Goa. The refit would equip the ship with Barak-1 missile and 4 Russian origin but made in India Kashtan AK-630 Close-In Warfare System (CIWS). [via TOITribune India]

The Barak-1 missile system is being stripped away from the frigate INS Godavari which is due to be decommissioned. Godavari is 32-year old and got its Barak-1 CIWS 10 years back.

In a subsequent refit, INS Vikramaditya will also equipped with the LR-SAM medium range Point Defense Missile System (PDMS).

For the PDMS, the option was between LR-SAM and Russian Shtil missiles. Now that the LR-SAM has been successfully developed, it will the natural choice.

The Shtil system is the naval variant of Buk missile system that reportedly downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014. It's currently fitted on IN Delhi-class destroyers and Talwar-class frigates.

Installing LR-SAM would entail some cutting through the deck, which would require four to nine months.

INS Vikramaditya would carry up to 32 or 48 LR-SAMs.

INS Vikramaditya (IDP Sentinel)

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