CDS (II) 2020 General Knowledge · Question 116 of 120

Correct — D, INS Viraat. Two conditions have to be met — the ship must be an aircraft carrier, and it must have been decommissioned — and Viraat is the only name on the list that meets even the first. She was a Centaur-class light carrier built for the Royal Navy as HMS Hermes and commissioned in 1959, bought by India in April 1986, refitted at Devonport and commissioned into the Indian Navy on 12 May 1987. She operated Sea Harrier jump jets from a flight deck fitted with a 12-degree ski jump, served through Operation Jupiter in Sri Lanka and Operation Parakram, and was formally decommissioned on 6 March 2017 after nearly thirty years in Indian service and more than fifty afloat in all. Every other option is a submarine or a destroyer.

• (a)INS Rajput — A guided-missile destroyer, the lead ship of the Kashin-class Rajput class, and the first Indian warship to carry the BrahMos missile. She was still in service at the November 2020 exam and was decommissioned only on 21 May 2021 — but she was never a carrier.
• (b)INS Chakra — The name India gives to a nuclear-powered attack submarine leased from Russia. The Akula-class Chakra was on lease at the time of the exam and was returned to Russia the following year — a submarine throughout, not a carrier.
• (c)INS Khanderi — A Kalvari-class diesel-electric attack submarine, the second of the Scorpene boats built at Mazagon Dock, commissioned in September 2019 — barely a year old when this paper was set, and very much in service.

India has operated three aircraft carriers. INS Vikrant, the former HMS Hercules, served from 1961 to 1997 and played a decisive part in the 1971 war. INS Viraat, the former HMS Hermes, served from 1987 to 2017. INS Vikramaditya, converted from the Russian Admiral Gorshkov, was commissioned in 2013 and remains in service. A carrier is identified by its full-length flight deck and its air wing; destroyers, frigates and submarines are entirely different classes of warship.

This is a naming item, and the fastest route is to sort the four names by class before considering the word 'decommissioned' at all. Rajput is a destroyer, Chakra and Khanderi are submarines, so only one candidate remains. It also helps to know the naming conventions the Indian Navy uses: submarine classes take names such as Kalvari, Khanderi, Karanj and Chakra, while Rajput, Delhi, Kolkata and Visakhapatnam name destroyer classes. As of the November 2020 exam, Viraat had been decommissioned and the Navy operated a single carrier. Since then the position has moved twice: Viraat was sold for scrap in July 2020, towed to the Alang breaking yard that September and, after a Supreme Court petition to preserve her was dismissed in April 2021, broken up; and the indigenous carrier INS Vikrant was commissioned in September 2022, so India again has two carriers in service.

• INS Viraat was the former HMS Hermes, a Centaur-class light carrier commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1959.
• India bought her in April 1986 and commissioned her on 12 May 1987; she was decommissioned on 6 March 2017.
• She was a STOVL carrier with a 12-degree ski jump and operated Sea Harrier aircraft.
• INS Rajput was a guided-missile destroyer, decommissioned on 21 May 2021 — after this exam; INS Chakra was a leased nuclear-powered submarine and INS Khanderi a Scorpene-class conventional submarine commissioned in 2019.
• Viraat was sold to shipbreakers in July 2020 and towed to Alang that September; India's indigenous carrier INS Vikrant was commissioned in September 2022.

• Assuming the INS prefix says anything about the type of ship; it does not.
• Confusing INS Chakra, a leased nuclear submarine, with INS Arihant, India's indigenous ballistic-missile submarine.
• Quoting the 2020 position on carrier strength as current — INS Vikrant joined the fleet in September 2022.

As a ship-to-class identification item, as a commissioning or decommissioning date item, or inside a statements set on a particular vessel.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  INS Vikramaditya, an aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy, was acquired from which country?

  • (a)United Kingdom
  • (b)Russia
  • (c)France
  • (d)United States of America

  Answer(b) Russia — she was converted from the Soviet-era Admiral Gorshkov and commissioned into the Indian Navy in 2013.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  INS Khanderi belongs to which class of vessel?

  • (a)Aircraft carrier
  • (b)Guided-missile destroyer
  • (c)Diesel-electric submarine
  • (d)Amphibious transport dock

  Answer(c) Diesel-electric submarine — the second Kalvari-class Scorpene boat, built at Mazagon Dock and commissioned in September 2019.