The long-delayed $2.3-billion aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya (Admiral Gorshkov) will be inducted into the Indian Navy by defence minister AK Antony during his Russia visit slated between November 15 and 17.
The long-delayed $2.3-billion aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya (Admiral Gorshkov) will be inducted into the Indian Navy by defence minister AK Antony during his Russia visit slated between November 15 and 17.
The 45,000-tonne Kiev class warship, rechristened by the Navy as Vikramaditya, sailed out of the Sevmash shipyard in northern Russia in July this year for trials. After 'sustained full-power' trials, it will now return to the shipyard for final polish and will be ready for handover to the Navy on November 15, when the defence minister visits Russia, MoD sources said.
Antony will ‘accept’ the aircraft carrier on November 15 ahead of the sailing and it’s expected to reach India in December end or early January year, officials said. The minister will also attend the meeting of the Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation (IR-IGCMTC) held every year, alternately in the two nations, where future cooperation in defence issues is decided.
He will discuss a number of deals, including issues related to the ongoing Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft being developed by Russia jointly with Hindustan Aeronautics.
The visit was earlier scheduled to take place in the third week of October, but due to ill-health, Antony was unable to go then. A 1,000-member Indian Navy crew and technical team, headed by a two-star officer, is already in Russia to take delivery of the warship.
Once inducted, it will be the second aircraft carrier in the Navy after INS Viraat, giving India a strategic advantage in the Indian Ocean. Vikramaditya, which was scheduled to be delivered in 2008, was supposed to have been handed over to India on December 4, 2012, but sea trials in September that year revealed the ship's boilers were not fully functional.
Vikramaditya was bought by India in 2004 for R4,500 crore and sent to Sevmash in the Severodvinsk port-city off the White Sea for a refit that year. Since then, the shipyard haggled for a price hike for the refurbishing work and forced India to pay it nearly R13,000 crore in 2010 after a three-year negotiation, resulting in acrimony in bilateral ties.
India had also bought a 45-aircraft MiG-29K combat
financialexpress
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