Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday commissioned the first aircraft carrier to be designed and built in India, underscoring the Indian government’s efforts to boost domestic manufacturing, Reuters and Agerpres reported.

After 17 years of construction and testing, Modi commissioned INS Vikrant – the Indian Navy’s second active aircraft carrier and the largest warship ever built in India – at the state-owned Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) in southern Kerala.

“Vikrant is huge, massive and capacious. Vikrant is different, Vikrant is also special. “Vikrant” is not just a warship,” exclaimed Modi, who praised the aircraft carrier, whose construction cost about 2.5 billion dollars and whose commissioning coincides with the 75th anniversary of independence from the British Empire, EFE notes.

With a total displacement of about 45,000 tonnes, the Vikrant is capable of generating enough electricity to power 5,000 homes, and according to Modi, the number of cables used could connect the city of Cochin, in India’s far south, to Varanasi, the spiritual capital of Hinduism, located more than 2,500 kilometers away, in the north of the country.

The crew of the Indian aircraft carrier consists of 1,600 sailors

“Today, India has become one of the countries in the world that can produce such a huge aircraft carrier using local technologies,” Modi said. “This is a symbol of local potential, local resources and local skills,” the Prime Minister of India emphasized.

Designed to carry a crew of 1,600 and a fleet of 30 aircraft, the 262-metre Vikrant will use the Russian-designed MIG-29K aircraft already flying from another Indian aircraft carrier, the INS Vikramaditya, which India bought from Russia.

American Boeing and French Dassault plan to supply India with more than 20 aircraft for the Vikrant. India is one of the world’s biggest arms importers and has spent 12.4 billion between 2018 and 2021, but the country wants to develop its own production capacity, given that its main supplier, Russia, has invaded Ukraine and is under sanctions.

Narendra Modi Talks About ‘Slavery Identity’

India has a 1.38 million-strong army, much of which is deployed along its borders with nuclear rivals China and Pakistan. “

The Indian Army also unveiled new naval heraldry, replacing the British-influenced St George’s Cross on the naval flag with a blue octagon representing the old 17th-century royal seal of Chhatrapati Shivaji. The Maratha emperor.

“Until now, the identity of slavery remained on the flag of the Indian Army. But from today, inspired by Chhatrapati Shivaji, the new army flag will fly on the sea and in the sky,” Modi said at the launch of the new symbol.