A Royal Navy team will also attend the golden jubilee celebrations of Viraat.

The aircraft carrier gives the Indian Navy an edge over the Chinese navy, which does not have one.

The Indian Navy will get its second aircraft carrier - the Russian-built Admiral Gorshkov - which is expected to be inducted by 2012.

INS Viraat is pivotal to the navy's aim to project its naval and air power beyond its borders. It provides operation ground for Sea Harrier combat jets. It can embark up to 18 combat aircraft and is suited for supporting amphibious operations and conducting anti-submarine warfare.

Gorshkov, on the other hand, will operate 16 MiG-29 K fighter jets. The two aircraft carriers will increase the reach of the India's blue water navy.

India earlier this year laid the keel for its indigenous 37,500-tonne aircraft carrier at the Cochin Shipyard. The carrier would be inducted by 2015.

On July 26, India launched into the waters its first indigenous nuclear-powered attack submarine, built under the Advanced Technology Vessel project with Russian help. Once this vessel, INS Arihant, is commissioned around 2012, India will become only the sixth country after the US, Russia, China, France and Britain to possess a nuclear-powered submarine.

(Ritu Sharma can be contacted at ritu.s@ians.in)