Indigenous aircraft carrier made of special steel

New Delhi: Over 24,000 tonne of specially designed steel capable of withstanding "high impact load shock" has gone into the construction of India's first indigenous aircraft carrier, officials said Monday.Commodore Saibal Sen, additional principal director, Naval Design, said here that DMR-249A and DMR-249B were among the qualities of steel that have been developed in the country and used in the aircraft carrier, which will be launched at Kochi Aug 12.

He said while DMR-249A was at least twice in strength than normal steel, DMR 249B was thrice as tough.

The high-end steel qualities for warships were developed following research efforts of Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL) and Naval Materials Research Laboratory (NMRL) in association with Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), a public sector company.

DMRL and NMRL are both organisations of Defence Research and Development Organisation.

Sen said that the steel qualities had been tested for their strength at minus 60 degrees.

He said about 27,000 tonnes of steel will be used in construction of the aircraft carrier and would cost about Rs 500 crore.

Sen said that the development of the specialised quality steel was of national and strategic importance and would have rip-offs in the coming years.

He said there was possibility of such steel being used in construction of civilian ships also.

SAIL chairman CS Verma said the organisation was laying thrust on "value added products" as part of its modernisation efforts.

He said total requirement of steel for defence sector was about 1,20,000 tonne per annum and SAIL was providing over 75 percent of the demand.

He said the navy's needs of steel were also being largely met by SAIL.

Sen said the navy had to maintain a large inventory of various grades of steel to meet requirements and difficulties were being faced in procuring them.

"Due to these reasons, the navy decided to rationalise these steels to AB class with superior properties," he said.

The aircraft carrier is being built at Cochin Shipyard Limited. After its launch, it will be redocked at Cochin Shipyard for erecting the island superstructure and remaining underwater work.

IANS / Zeenews