Refitted Aircraft Carrier to Leave for India November 30 – Deputy Premier

A Russian-built aircraft carrier refitted for the Indian Navy will finally leave for India on November 30, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Monday, following an overhaul that is years late, and cost over twice the original budgeted price.

The carrier Vikramaditya, which is now five years past its original 2008 delivery date, was supposed to have been handed over to India in December 2012 after the contract was renegotiated, but had to undergo additional repairs after last year’s sea trials revealed that the vessel's boilers were not fully functional due to problems with their insulation.

“The problems revealed during sea trials last year have been fixed,” Rogozin, who oversees Russia’s defense and space industries, said at a meeting with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

“The ship is ready a month ahead of the handover ceremony and will leave our territorial waters on November 30,” Rogozin said.

Russian arms exports monopoly Rosoboronexport said in September that the Vikramaditya will be handed over to India on November 15 and was expected arrive at the Indian naval base at the port of Mumbai by February.

 

The warship, previously known as the Admiral Gorshkov, is a Project 1143.4 or modified Kiev class aircraft carrier commissioned by the Soviet Navy in 1987 and decommissioned in 1996 after cuts to the Russian Navy fleet.

The refit of the ship has lurched from one crisis to another since India and Russia signed a $947 million deal in 2004 for its purchase and refit according to the Times of India. Delivery has been delayed three times, pushing up the cost of refurbishing the vessel to $2.3 billion, sparking acrimony between Moscow and New Delhi over the contract.

The Indian Navy has already taken delivery of some of the carrier's MiG-29K naval fighter aircraft, that were completed before their parent ship was ready for sea.

INS Vikramaditya, India's second aircraft carrier, out at sea again

The INS Vikramaditya, India's second aircraft carrier, is out at sea again. By this time tomorrow, the 45,550-ton vessel built at the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk, north Russia, will be sailing through the Barents Sea.

Over the next two months at least, the ship will be put through stringent testing in the Barents Sea and the White sea. "If all goes well, the Indian tri-colour will be flying atop the INS Vikramaditya this November, after which it will start its journey to India," a senior Navy officer told NDTV.

The INS Vikramaditya, formerly known as Admiral Gorskhov, was to have joined the Indian Navy last year. However, the insulation tiles of its boilers cracked during full power trials, which entail pushing the ship to maximum speed at sea and then testing all systems for accuracy and endurance. 

The fire-brick lining - made of special ceramic to help maintain optimum temperature in the boilers - on the inside of the insulation had come off. A senior official told NDTV that the entire insulation was ripped off and a new one has been installed.

A 500-member Indian Navy team, which was training on-board the Admiral Gorshkov then had spotted the problem with the warship's boilers, especially when the vessel hit top speed of about 30 knots (around 55 kmph).

The repairs delayed delivery of the ship by a year. "Tests carried out in the dry docks have also been successful," the official said.

India and Russia had signed a $2.3-billion (Rs. 14,000 crore approximately at present valuation) contract for refitting the aircraft carrier, which served in the erstwhile Soviet Navy. The first contract was signed in 2004, when no other country was ready to sell such technology to India.

During the sea trails now, all systems of the ship, including its sensor and weapon and propulsion system will be tested and full power trails will be conducted again. A contingent of Indian Navy officials are on board to oversee and inspect the trials.

INS Vikramaditya undergoes repairs before final sea trials

The aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya, to be delivered to the Indian navy in December, has been put in a dry dock at a Russian shipyard for "cosmetic" repairs ahead of final sea trials.

"The work is underway to repaint the hull under the waterline," Sergey Novoselov, head of defence export projects at Russia's Sevmash shipyard, said.

In addition, much of the interiors has yet to be completed, the official was quoted as saying by Ria Novosti. 

 Special attention will be dedicated to the cabins for the commanding officers of the vessel, which will be refitted with better DEX-O-TEX fireproof flooring, new wall panels, more comfortable furniture and sophisticated audio and video equipment.

The Vikramaditya is scheduled to begin sea trials in the White Sea in July. The warship will continue the trials in the Barents Sea in August-September to be delivered to India in early December.

The warship, previously known as the Admiral Gorshkov, is a Project 1143.4 or modified Kiev class aircraft carrier commissioned by the Soviet navy in 1987 and decommissioned in 1996 as it was too expensive to operate on a post-Soviet budget.

India and Russia signed the USD 947 million deal in 2004 for the purchase of the carrier, but the original 2008 delivery deadline has already been delayed twice, pushing up the cost of refurbishing the ship to USD 2.3 billion.

India has already started taking delivery of MiG-29K naval fighter aircraft for the Vikramaditya

Russia to hand over INS Vikramaditya to India in November

Russia will hand over the much-delayed INS Vikramaditya aircraft carrier to India in November, giving the country's navy a strategic advantage in the Indian Ocean region. The Vikramaditya aircraft carrier is to be handed over to the Indian Navy in November, 2013, head of the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, Alexander Fomin, said on Thursday. 

"The ship is to be put in a dock in April, go on sea trials in June and July and be officially handed over some time in November," he was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying. 

 The Vikramaditya was originally built as the Soviet Project 1143.4 class aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov. 

The Vikramaditya, which is already years past its original 2008 delivery date, was supposed to have been handed over on December 4, 2012, but sea trials in September revealed the ship's boilers were not fully functional. The Vikramaditya then returned to the shipyard to fix the problems that were detected during the sea trials. 

The ship demonstrated excellent seaworthiness, speed of 27.9 knots (about 52 kilometres per hour) and manoeuvrability during the three-month sea trials. The ship sailed for more than 12,000 miles, with 517 flights performed from its deck by aircraft and helicopters. 

Russia's Northern Fleet aviation was involved in the sea trials, aircraft and helicopters flew around and over the ship in order to check its radar, air defence, communication and control systems. 

Under a package inter-governmental agreement signed in New Delhi in January 2004, the body of the Admiral Gorshkov was transferred to India for free, subject to its upgrading at Sevmash, a Russian shipbuilding company, and armament with Russian aircraft. 

Russia will also train the Indian crew of about 1,500 and create an infrastructure for the ship in the Indian Ocean. 

The overall cost of the contract was estimated at USD 1.5 billion, of which about 974 million were intended for the conversion of the ship into a full-scale aircraft carrier. 

The Admiral Gorshkov was built in Nikolayev under the name of Baku and put to service in the Northern Fleet in 1987.

Russia Copes With The Vikramaditya Disaster

Although India has been buying Russian weapons for over half a century, the latest problem with poorly built engines in the new carrier INS Vikramaditya is destroying what little faith the Indians still have in Russian manufacturing quality. It's not just Vikramaditya engines, but also unreliable engines in the Su-30 and poorly built electronics in the T-90 tank and other Russian warships India has purchased. The Russians have tried to improve the quality of their weapons and support, but a shortage of qualified people to make it happen has made improvements hard to come by. Even the Russian weapons the Russian military buys suffer from these problems, which are largely caused by the free market conditions that have existed in Russia since the communist government collapsed in 1991. More qualified people prefer better paying and more interesting jobs in non-military industries. The Russian government has been unable to come up with a fix for this situation, which is causing problems with rebuilding their own military, as well has holding onto export customers.

A growing number of Indians want more Western weapons. These are more expensive, but you get what you pay for and the Western stuff tends to be combat proven and highly respected by users in many nations. The Russian stuff tends to be used by losers.

The Russian shipyard managers admit that the Vikramaditya engine problem was not the quality of the Chinese firebricks used to insulate engine components from the intense heat of the steam boilers. The problem was discovered when seven of eight steam boilers in the carrier power plant failed during recent high-speed trials. The Russians initially blamed 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 some engineers claimed would not be adequate. But after Russian ship yard engineers examined the engines they concluded it was poor workmanship and supervision, not poor design or poor materials that was at the cause of the problem. The ship yard promises to fix the faulty work within five months, and not tear the engine room apart or have to open the hull to do it. To be on the safe side Russia is now telling India that the Vikramaditya will be delivered in about a year. The ship yard managers and workers know that if they screw this up, there is going to be a lot less new business from India.

Aside from the engine failure (a major problem) the months of sea trials off the north coast (Barents Sea) of Russia did not reveal any other major problems. In all other respects the ship appears to be in working order. The engine safety system, for example, detected the overheating and shot down the engines before any damage could be done. Other safety systems on the ship also worked well and the Russians pointed out that there were problems with some Western equipment the Indians insisted on using. Most importantly, two months ago the carrier experienced its first landing by a MiG-29. Any other equipment problems noted during the sea trials will be fixed while the engine insulation system is rebuilt.

The Vikramaditya was originally the Russian Gorshkov, which served in the Russian Navy from 1987 to 1995, but was then withdrawn from service because the navy could not afford to keep the carrier operational. Gorshkov was put up for sale in 1996 and in 2005. India agreed to buy the Gorshkov if a few changes could be made. India paid over $2 billion to refurbish the Gorshkov and turn it into the Vikramaditya.

Some of the Indian crew has been working with the Vikramaditya for over a year, learning about all the ship's systems, and over 400 of them were aboard during the sea trials. But now all but 40 of these will return to India while the repairs take place. The best part of that is not having to spend another Winter in Russia.

India was supposed to take possession of the Vikramaditya by late 2012, but that was delayed until early 2013, and is now delayed until late 2013. This project is now five years behind schedule and $1.5 billion over the original budget. It is a major cause of ill-will between Russia and India and has now worsened relations between China and Russia.