Posted on 09/02/2009 9:23:45 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
MiG-29K fighters ready, but no carriers
Vishnu Som, Wednesday September 2, 2009, Moscow
Brand, spanking new MiG-29K fighters for the Indian Navy are ready for delivery after years in development, except there's one major problem -- the aircraft carrier they were meant to be deployed on the Gorshkov, is no where near ready.
As India and Russia continue negotiations for a final price on the Gorshkov, these jets will be based at Goa with no carrier to be deployed on.
The saga to fix a final price on the Gorshkov, a second hand carrier being refurbished for the Indian Navy, is now having a clear impact on the Navy's capabilities.
These MiG-29s are not designed to be deployed on its existing carrier the Viraat -- a 50-year-old ship which simply must be retired in the next three years. At that stage neither the Gorshkov nor the indigenously built aircraft carrier, being constructed in Cochin, will be ready.
Four years after they signed a 1.6 billion dollar contract with India for the Gorshkov and its planes, the Russians went back on their word, saying, "We underestimated the work needed" and have since upped their demand to a whopping 3 billion dollars.
For India, cancelling the deal is a no-win situation since we have already pumped in hundreds of millions of dollars into the deal.
As India and Russia try and close out the Gorshkov deal there is every possibility that by 2012, for the first time in more than 50 years, the Indian Navy will be without an operational aircraft carrier.
Dear India:
Welcome to the world of BIG Military contracting.....
They should start building their own carriers, they are capable of it.
I assume they can land on land?
Cuz that will probably be what they do.
Build? Definitely.
Design? Probably not. There’s just not enough experience with carriers for that (yet).
Build? Definitely.
Design? Probably not. There’s just not enough experience with carriers for that (yet).
They can build a “fake” CV on land for practice take-offs and landings. I the Chinese did that, while they try to build their own carrier or get the Kutzenov re-built.
India is already building a carrier-due for entry by 2015-16. It was designed with Italian help. About experience,the IN has been operating carriers for close for 50 years now.
Operating carriers isn’t the same as designing them, though.
Carriers are a HUGE investment and each carrier is vastly different than the previous unit. The design infrastructure alone requires a significant military/industrial relationship.
I don’t know about Italian designs.
I would’ve thought French help might be more suitable.
In order to build carriers, you must have shipyards capable of building the smallest super tanker. I do not think India has that capacity yet. China has the money, tech base and shipyards to build super tankers, and they still hesitate to build a carrier. Britain and France navies uses the same aircraft as their airforce (to save money) which are medium size fighter/attack airframes and can build medium size carriers for them. China and India opted to use larger frame fighter/aircraft for their airforces and now find that in order to use them on future carriers, their carriers must be larger than the British/French counterparts. Larger carriers are more expensive and a bit more complicated to layout and build. With their domestic economies in recession, I think China and India is going to postpone fielding a carrier until their economies pick up.
Umm, the Cochin Shipyard in India designed a 25,000 tonne VSTOL carrier in the late 80s, but the project was cancelled due to budget cuts. Italian help is being sought since they’ve pioneered improved modular building techniques and are using a similar ski-jump based design for their Cavour class carrier-which is smaller than the IN’s next carrier, which is about the size of the French Charles De Gaulle.
Hardly. The Sh***y Kitty has been stripped of equipment and is need of a lengthy SLEP.
So, they’ve designed a carrier that was never built, and are using Italian help for this one.
I’ve got nothing against India, but “closing the deal” requires much more experience than sailing other nation’s carriers for 50 years. Even England is outsourcing a good chunk of their new carrier design to the French.
The old ski-jump configuration eliminates a serious part of the headache, so they’ve saved themselves that.
So, they’ve designed a carrier that was never built, and are using Italian help for this one.
I’ve got nothing against India, but “closing the deal” requires much more experience than sailing other nation’s carriers for 50 years. Even England is outsourcing a good chunk of their new carrier design to the French.
The old ski-jump configuration eliminates a serious part of the headache, so they’ve saved themselves that.
So, they’ve designed a carrier that was never built, and are using Italian help for this one.
I’ve got nothing against India, but “closing the deal” requires much more experience than sailing other nation’s carriers for 50 years. Even England is outsourcing a good chunk of their new carrier design to the French.
The old ski-jump configuration eliminates a serious part of the headache, so they’ve saved themselves that.
Sorry.
My mouse selector was set to “three-round-burst”.
Not a bad idea.
The UK is outsourcing some of its carrier work to save money, not because of lack of technology or industrial capability. Sure building a carrier or pretty much anything involves a lot of risk, but I think that’s how most nations go about it.
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