After refit, Vikramaditya ready to join Navy

 

Vikramaditya, acquired from Russia for $2.3 billion, was commissioned into the Navy in November 2013 without the crucial air-defence systems.

Aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya will sail out of the harbour in Karwar after its first short refit and join the Navy in a week, Vice-Admiral P. Murugesan, Vice-Chief of the Naval Staff, said here on Tuesday.

He was briefing presspersons on a seminar, “Innovation and indigenisation — sailing towards self-reliance” being organised by the Navy on Thursday and Friday.

Vikramaditya, acquired from Russia for $2.3 billion, was commissioned into the Navy in November 2013 without the crucial air-defence systems. They are now being installed during the “guaranteed refit”, in addition to scheduled maintenance, by the original equipment manufacturer.

The Israeli-supplied Barak-1 point defence missile system and the Russian-origin AK-630 close-in weapon system, borrowed from a to-be-decommissioned Godavari-class ship, were installed on the carrier.

The carrier was originally scheduled to receive a long-range surface-to-air missile system under joint development with Israel. But delay in its development resulted in the carrier being inducted without its own air-defence cover.

Vice-Admiral Murugesan said a high-powered committee constituted to evaluate domestic shipyards for the Navy’s next line of submarines under Project 75I had completed its compliance checks.

“The report has been submitted to the Defence Ministry,” he said.

Tenders will be issued to the shortlisted shipyards once it is approved. Under Project 75I, estimated at over Rs. 50,000 crore, six conventional submarines are to be built by domestic shipyards with foreign collaboration.

the hindu