Thenavy‘s new carrier battle group is centered on Vikramaditya which consists of the modern Kolkata class destroyers, Shivalik and Talwar-class frigates, Kamorta-class anti-submarine warfare corvettes and new tankers.
NATO Spied on INS Vikramaditya.
INS Vikramaditya has an ATM machine onboard.
INS Vikramaditya, moving township in ocean
INS Vikramaditya has automated idli and dosa machine. Using technology developed by Mysore’s Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Eskay Enterprises installed six dosa-making machines and three-idli-making machines onboard the Vikramaditya. The machines can churn out 400 dosas and 1,000 idlis per hour.The Navy will be well fed, with the carrier requiring over a lakh of eggs, 20,000 liters of milk and 16 tons of rice every month; allowing her to sustain herself out at sea for about 45 days.
Key facts about INS Vikramaditya, pride of Indian Navy.
The military has the resources to employ brilliant researchers in developing breakthrough technological advancements - their eventual commercialization has benefited all humankind, think of the internet, the GPS and satellite communications. Let’s hope that we can see the roll out of the dosa-making machines within our lifetime, thanks to the efforts by the Indian navy.
So they bought that thing from the Russians after the Soviet collapsed. Those curved decks are because they lack the steam catapult technology so the planes all take off with limited ordinance and fuel. Thing runs on diesel like my hemi.
Interestingly, all carriers outside the US, except one, are powered by fossil fuels - probably diesel. I guess they can’t, or just don’t want to deal with floating nuclear reactors going all over the place. I’m also somewhat fascinated that nuclear carriers are self powered for like 100 years. So if there were no humans on board, and nothing breaks, the ship would be able to go around by itself for decades…
It’s a technological issue. Russia stopped building carriers after the 80’s and lost the capability to do so, it no longer has the shipyards and technological sophistication in ship building. Now China is I think designing their own nuclear carrier but it’s a hugely complex task that takes decades of build up. The advantages are nuclear carriers are more self sufficient and don’t have to carry diesel for themselves so you have more room for jet fuel and armaments.
I agree with your concern that the dosa-making technology may not be currently at a stage of development that is cost-effective, which is possibly the reason for installing an ATM machine rather than operating it as a fully government-subsidized project for the benefit of the enlisted navy servicemen of India. Perhaps the solution for a faster-track commercialization is to develop smaller-scale projects first, for instance focus on pakoras rather than dosas which might be a simple design-build problem.
“The machines can churn out 400 dosas and 1,000 idlis per hour.The Navy will be well fed, with the carrier requiring over a lakh of eggs, 20,000 liters of milk and 16 tons of rice every month; allowing her to sustain herself out at sea for about 45 days.”
This dosa thing is fascinating. The typical US carrier deployment is apparently 7-10 months, or about 210 to 300 days. Yet, the INS Vikramaditya can only run for less than 20% of this duration before it runs out of dosa ingredients. The Indian defense ministry might have made a strategic oversight by failing to consider the ship’s capacity to produce traditional Indian foods for prolonged durations.
Also, it might be important to clarify that not only does the Vikramaditya have an ATM, but it was the first aircraft carrier to have this facility. Credit should be given where it is due.
^the article says that the ship personnel is ~1,600. If the dosa machines churn ~400 dosas per hour, it would take 4 hours to feed every crew member 1 dosa, which doesn’t seem reasonable. But let’s say peak lunch/dinner timing lasts 1.5 hours. You can produce 600 dosas and 1,500 idlis. Perhaps 600 guys can all get 1 dosa each, and the remaining 1,000 crew can get 1.5 idlis each, implying that 1 dosa = 1.5 idlis.
Or, 1,200 crew can get 1/2 dosa and 1/2 idli whereas the remaining 400 people and get 2.25 idlis each, implying that 1/2 dosa = 1.75 idli, or equivalently, 1 dosa = 3.5 idli. So I wonder, using the dosa as a reference numeraire and subject to the constraint of the machines operating at full capacity for 1.5 hours during peak meal time, what would be the optimal exchange rate of idlis per unit dosa to keep everyone excited and happy, assuming all consumers are rational?
How many dosas is a live snake worth? If you could house enough snakes in the living quarters, then we’re talking about a reproducing asset w/ nutritional value. Plus think about the added entertainment value of people eating live snakes in front of each other. Win win.
