The Admiral Gorshkov warship will be put on trial on Barents
Sea between May and July and commissioned by Sevmash shipyard on White
Sea in November 2013.
Government sources said the 2012 “boiler furnace brickwork”
problem, encountered in seven of the eight boilers, had been rectified and the
Naval Headquarters believes that the ship — modification and refitting of which
would cost around $2.3 billion — will be on India’s western seaboard by
November-December this year.
With India’s sole aircraft carrier — the 54-year-old INS
Viraat — undergoing an overhaul and scheduled to join active duty by mid-2013,
there is urgency in the acquisition of Vikramaditya as the Chinese PLA Navy
will put its aircraft carrier Liaoning on high sea trial this year.
Acquired as junk named Varyag from Ukraine,
Liaoning— refurbished at the Dalian
shipyard — is expected to acquire combat capability within two years.
As a first step towards formally acquiring Vikramaditya, 16
aircraft of Russian MiG-29 K fighters will be commissioned into the Indian Navy
in Goa on May 11.
While this squadron of multi-role fighters will be
christened 303 squadron, the navy will acquire another 29 aircraft for its
second squadron.
The new aircraft carrier will be based at Karwar in
Karnataka under the Western Naval Command and will give India
the much needed long legs in the Indian Ocean region.
“The delivery of INS Vikramaditya figured in summit meeting
between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Delhi
on December 24, 2012. We
hope that high sea aviation and speed trials of INS Vikramaditya would be
smooth,” said a defence ministry official.
With the first squadron of carrier-based fly-by-wire MiG-29
K fighters to be formally inducted into the navy next month, India is now
keeping its fingers crossed on Russia delivering the 45,000-tonne INS
Vikramaditya aircraft carrier by 2013 end, after a delay of over five years.
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