Posted on 12/30/2010 8:17:30 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
DEFENCE
INS Vikramaditya may not arrive even in 2012
By Syed Nazakat
Ahead of his last visit to India, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev got angry with the Sevmash Shipyard. He publicly scolded the Russian shipbuilder for delays in delivering the INS Vikramaditya, formerly the Admiral Gorshkov. Medvedev knew that India was tired of waiting for the 45,000-tonne aircraft-carrier.
While his two-day visit to Delhi ?this December was to better the bilateral relations, Moscow is aware that further delays in the INS Vikramaditya deal could be a setback to Russia-India defence ties and could sour future defence deals.
The original delivery date of August 2008 had been moved to late 2012. But given the work that must be completed before sea trials, Russia might not be able to deliver the warship even in 2012.
While the Indian defence ministry claims that the work on the warship is on schedule, the mooring trials are already delayed. The trails scheduled for November 2010 are unlikely to be held before mid-2011. A high-level Indian defence team will inspect the carrier in January 2011 to evaluate the progress of refurbishment.
The delay would not only raise the costs, but also leave the Indian Navy without an aircraft carrier for the first time since the 1960s. The ageing INS Viraat will be decommissioned in 2012 and India’s Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) would be ready for sea trials only in 2014. Navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma said the IAC could not be launched this year because of delays in supply of equipment.
“We do not expect the [Russian] aircraft carrier to be delivered to us by 2012 or early 2013,” said a senior defence official, who is in the know about the refitting. “Simply because work on the warship is still behind schedule.”
THE WEEK learnt that the delay is not only because Sevmash underestimated the length of cabling (2,500km of wires), but also because of the additional work brought about by the redesign. A modified Kiev-class ship, the Admiral Gorshkov was designed to operate helicopters and other aircraft that take off and land vertically. But India wanted a carrier with Short Take Off But Assisted Recovery (STOBAR) configuration. STOBAR would make the hybrid carrier/cruiser a pure aircraft carrier.
So all weaponry and missile launcher tubes were stripped from the ship’s foredeck. The 280m flight deck will have a runway 198m long and 24m wide, ideal for operating MiG-29K fighter jets. As per STOBAR requirements, the runway will feature three arrester wires. There will also be a 130m hangar below the deck. The extensive refitting and conversion have been more complex and expensive than first envisioned.
Indian defence ministry officials confirmed that the anti-aircraft missile module selected for the carrier failed the trials and the refurbishment was concluded without the missile system. That implies that the carrier would not have an inbuilt close-in weapon system which detects and destroys incoming missiles.
In June 2010, a Navy team led by Vice-Admiral N.N. Kumar, controller of warship production and acquisition, examined the carrier at Sevmash. The team reportedly found that there was substantial progress since the last examination in September 2009. But there were several delays in scheduled refit tasks.
Later, Kumar met a team of experts and designers from the JSC United Shipbuilding Corporation, JSC Sevmash, Nevskoye Planning & Design Bureau and Rosoboronexport. “We told them to increase the pace of work if they wanted to meet the 2012 deadline,” said a senior Navy officer. “The team found that almost 30 per cent of the cabling work was pending.”
The delay in structural work and cabling would further delay the trials. As per the extended deadline, the carrier should have been ready for sea trials now. Then there is the issue of the delayed mooring trials. “Northern Russia winters are long and harsh. We have to wait till at least April 2011 for mooring trials,” said a senior Naval officer.
To avoid further delay, Sevmash wanted to hold only one trial, but the Navy was not in the favour of that. The sea trials are expected to take approximately 18 months. It was in the mid-1990s that Russia offered the warship as a ‘gift’ to India, linking the offer to its repairing and re-equipping. The acquisition of 16 MiG-29Ks was part of the package. The acquisition was approved in January 2004 and a total outlay of 78,927 crore was sanctioned.
Russia agreed to repair and refit the deteriorating ship and deliver it by August 2008. When the ship was opened for upgradation, it was found that the cabling was completely damaged. Ten months before the scheduled date of delivery, in November 2007, Russia requested extension till 2012, and an increase in the contract cost. India, after three years of bitter wrangling with Russia, agreed to revise the refit cost to $2.33 billion, but linked the deal with 29 more MiG-29Ks for $1.46 billion in March 2010.
An important part of the deal is to train a 1,500-strong crew to repair and maintain the refurbished carrier. Till December 2010, only around 200 Indian specialists, comprising officers, sailors and civilian personnel, have been sent to Russia to monitor the work and train.
A lot hinges on this carrier. The Navy plans to deploy two carrier-battle groups (CBGs) by 2015. The first CBG will be centred on Vikramaditya, and the second on the 40,000-tonne IAC, which is under construction at the Cochin Shipyard. Vikramaditya, with its MiG-29K squadron, would considerably enhance the firepower of the Indian Navy. It is a vital component of India’s global military strategy. But when will Vikramaditya join the Indian Navy? Only Russia knows.
I could just imagine the quality of workmanship on this rebuild.
They are probably ramrodding like crazy now that everybody involved is screaming about the delays.
sounds like it will be a slow boat from china in getting it built. I beleive India may need to rethink having a ship built by the Soviet Union. India might want to ask the us to build a ship for them in the meantime, since the US outsources a lot of jobs to India. It probably be finished long before 2012 or is it 2015 when the Russian built aircraft crrier will be done.
Russia and India. It’s like an abusive codependent relationship.
I was surprised to learn that John Deere has many of its utility model tractors built in India...I thought that JD was the only tractor company that manufactured all its tractors in the USA. Still build them in Georgia, (the US one), but a lot in Inja.
Didn’t John Deere also acquire some factories in the former Soviet Union? I know Belarus tractors are still the biggest brand there but I thought JD was building there as well.
Click on pic for past Navair pings.
Post or FReepmail me if you wish to be enlisted in or discharged from the Navair Pinglist.
The only requirement for inclusion in the Navair Pinglist is an interest in Naval Aviation.
This is a medium to low volume pinglist.
Yes, both in Russia and in China but they were not for the market here but for the domestic market there. Most of the utility size tractors JD builds here have Yanmar diesel engines that use to be built in Japan, whether production has moved to Taiwan for those yet I don’t know. They really are the best tractors built on the market though, worth the extra money in resale alone.
Workmanship has to be bad. I was looking for the oar holes out the side.
I forget are these old Kievs nuc?
The Kievs use steam propulsion.
The GE turbines are for the under-construction aircraft carrier in India.
I don’t think India or any reasonable industrial nation wants to have an aircraft carrier ‘built’ anywhere. The Vikramaditya is a converted carrier, which was originally commissioned in the late 1980s into the Soviet navy; it’s currently being modified.
About buying such a ship from the US, the US is no longer competitive as a shipbuilder; countries like Spain, Germany and of late, South Korea are increasingly in favour. The US doesn’t have any realistic design to offer to India; the Nimitz/Ford classes and their predecessors are just too big for the Indian navy. The closest meaningful alternative is to buy one of the Royal Navy’s planned CVF class carriers.
Which in itself could be "killer". The IJNS Shinano was converted from a Yamato-class battleship to a CV and work was rushed to deliver the ship ASAP.
Shinano was torpedoed during trials. A spread of four torps found her, but three were defeated by her big battleship bulge and heavy armored belt. The fourth found a crossmember and hit it on the head like a hammer on a nail, driving it into an internal compartment and flooding it. Shinano's damage-control officer, on a quick assessment trip belowdecks, discovered that the knife-edges on the watertight hatches had been rushed and were all leaking air. It took several hours, but Shinano eventually sank from that one torpedo hit, after near-sister BB Musashi had absorbed dozens in the big battle in the Sibuyan Sea before she finally sank.
please add me to ping list
I had wondered about that on & off since about 1970.
Thank you - Where did you find that info?
They might also want to consider an offer for the two British CV's that are apt to be homeless when completed due to budgetary restrictions. (Assuming the present Defence cuts aren't for political show and won't be restored after the necessary business of cutting entitlements.)
The British ships were designed with the F-35B in mind ..... wonder if they'd be compatible with MiG-29K's.
Almost all less than 40 horsepower JD tractors have been built in Japan.
the US is no longer competitive as a shipbuilder; countries like Spain, Germany and of late, South Korea are increasingly in favour...
Why? Please explain.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.