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Gere's What You Need to Remember: Ideological and financial concerns mean there are a lot of things India won’t buy from the United States or Europe, leaving Russia as their sole source of weapons. Like a lot of countries, India wants the best weapons it can afford. But ideological and financial concerns mean there are a lot of things it won’t buy from the United States or Europe. That pretty much leaves, well, Russia. India has been a big buyer of Russian weapons for 50 years. Those haven’t been easy years for New Delhi. India’s defense contracts with Russia have...

China and Russia are arguing over the quality of Chinese firebricks. That's because last month Russia told India that delivery of the refurbished Russian carrier Admiral Gorshkov (since renamed the INS Vikramaditya) would be delayed another ten months. The problem was that seven of eight steam boilers in the carrier power plant failed during recent high-speed trials. The Russians blame India for this, as the Indians refused to allow the Russians to use asbestos to insulate nearby engine components from the intense heat generated by the steam boilers. Instead the Russians had to use firebrick which, as some engineers suspected,...

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...

A non-flying MiG-29K naval strike fighter prototype is being used to test aircraft handling systems in the former Soviet aircraft carrier being refitted for the Indian Navy at the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk, northern Russia. Sevmash announced on 9 June that the MiG-29K was brought on board Vikramaditya (ex-Admiral Gorshkov ) to trial flight-deck hardware, in particular the restraints that are designed to hold an aircraft in place until its engines generate sufficient thrust for take-off. The yard's head of production for military-technical co-operation, Sergey Novoselov, said that successful testing of the restraints was a condition for the next contractual...

Russia has said it will stick to the 2012 deadline of delivering modernised Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier to India. “We are catching up with the retrofit of the Admiral Gorshkov. “We will fulfill the obligations Russia has undertaken,” Roman Trotsenko, head of Russia's united shipbuilding corporation, was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti. India recently agreed to pay an additional US$ 2.33 billion to Russia for Admiral Gorshkov. As per the original contract signed between the two countries in 2004, Indian Navy was to get the carrier in 2008. However, the two countries were negotiating for the last one year...

Government said the USD 1,783 million to be spent for refurbishing and repairing the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier "compares well" with the price of similar warships built in other countries. "The repair and refurbishing cost of about USD 1,783 million (USD 1.78 billion) of the ship compares well with the cost of other aircraft carriers of similar capabilities being built elsewhere in the world," Defence Minister A K Antony said in written reply to a Rajya Sabha query Friday. India and Russia recently signed a fresh deal worth USD 2.33 billion dollars for the Gorshkov, which was originally to be...

A senior navy officer, who played a crucial role in the acquisition of Admiral Gorshkov, the Russian aircraft carrier, has been placed under the scanner. Investigators are looking into whether commodore Sukhjinder Singh’s proximity to some Russians was in any way linked to problems associated with the Gorshkov project, including the escalation in cost as well as delays. Singh was in charge of the aircraft carrier project in Russia, and had been stationed there for many years. The commodore was deputed there to supervise the re-fitting and technical requirements. The probe also focuses on his improper personal conduct. The carrier...

After a three-year long renegotiation, the fresh price of Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier was finalised at USD 2.35 billion by the government, a day ahead of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's two-day visit to India. "The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), which met here on Wednesday, has given its approval to the fresh price for Gorshkov," a Defence Ministry official said here. India and Russia are likely to conclude the fresh contract for the aircraft carrier, bought by the Navy in 2004 and rechristened INS Vikramaditya, during Putin's stay in the capital. The warship, purchased originally at a price of...

Russia and India are expected to sign three contracts in military technical cooperation totaling $4 billion, including retrofitting the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier during Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's visit to India, Vedomosti Russian daily reported. A $2.35-billion contract between Russia's state-controlled arms exporter Rosoboronexport and the Indian Defense Ministry on refitting the INS Vikramaditya (Admiral Gorshkov) and the $1.2-billion contract on delivery of MiG-29K/KUB carrier-based fighters will be signed during Putin's visit to India on March 11-12. The Vikramaditya is currently undergoing repairs and refit at the Sevmash shipyard in Russia. The initial refit agreement of $970 million went...

In a strange twist of fate, a former province of the then USSR — Ukraine — is emerging as the likely meeting point for naval aviators from India and China as the two countries try to rapidly acquire the capabilities to build and operate aircraft carriers of the future. A small aircraft carrier training base on the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine is the most sought after training facility for both countries that are planning to induct modern aircraft carriers in the next five years. While India, which has been operating aircraft carriers for the past 50 years, wants to use...