INS Vikramaditya overkill!

A Naval team is currently in Russia for the next phase of negotiations on the Admiral Gorshkov price. Thought it’s a good time to post some photos that probably haven’t been seen before — at least some of them. I don’t know if anyone’s already seen them — I certainly haven’t — so I’m posting them here. This was Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sureesh Mehta’s visit to the Sevmash shipyard to inspect the INS Vikramaditya between March 13-19. The important looking Russian gentleman he’s with is Sevmash Director General N Kalistratov.

The third photo shows the Indian delegation led by Defence Secretary Vijay Singh to Sevmash a month earlier, right after Russia dropped the bomb about a new price for the Gorshkov. The last few photos have probably been seen, but thought I’d post them anyway — these are of the Vikramaditya after it was dry-docked. They’re all by in-house photographers at the Sevmash yard.

13 thoughts on “INS Vikramaditya overkill!”

  1. Slick… very slick! Who woulda thought this was a burnt wreck just a few years ago? She almost looks ready to take on the Nimitz, I tell ya.

  2. great photos shiv, thank you for posting them. please post more if there are more. if these are from the sevmash page, then it’s a shame that we have not seen these before!! good work!

  3. Shiv: Interesting photos! Seems like not that much has been done after stripping down this old war machine.

    Also – I have been meaning to ask you this for a while: if it is not too much trouble, could you please shift the “Recent Comments” column on the RHS of your page above the “Article Categories”? It is just easier to get to the latest buzz. Thanks in advance!

  4. IANS report: India has asked Russia to make an advance payment of $250 million to the Sevmash shipyard in Arctic Russia for refurbishing the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, which will be adjusted later when final settlement is done between the two countries. “We have asked Russia to make an advance payment to the cash-crunched Sevmash shipyard, where Admiral Gorshkov is docked for refitting. The amount will be adjusted in the final amount (to be paid to Russia),” Defence Secretary Vijay Singh told IANS.

    A defence ministry team will head to Moscow May 26 on a five-day visit for final talks on the cost escalation with the state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport, with which the contract was signed in 2004.

    “Vice-Admiral Dileep Deshpande, controller Warship Production and Acquisition, will be leading a team of the ministry of defence to Russia this month to discuss the matter,” Singh added.

    India has agreed to shell out more for the refit of the 45,000 ton Kiev class aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov – one of Russia’s largest individual military deals with India at $1.5 billion. Russia has been demanding an additional $1.2 billion for overhaul of the war ship.

    Russia has advanced the money for the additional work on Admiral Gorshkov, re-christened INS Vikramaditya, to Sevmash though the final negotiations on the increased amount demanded has not yet reached a conclusion. The assessment of the work to be done, including an exhaustive weapons inventory, on Admiral Gorshkov has been going on for a long time.

    The contract covers the modernization of the ship and equipping it with modern weaponry, including the MiG-29K Fulcrum aircraft and Ka-27 Helix-A and Ka-31 Helix-B anti-submarine helicopters.

    Russia has discussed with India the manpower crunch at the Sevmash shipyard and even asked technicians from Indian shipyards to come and work there.

    Vice Admiral Deshpande will hold talks on this issue as well.

    The two sides have been carrying on negotiations on the price issue for over a year with India not keen to pay what it considers unreasonable escalation that nearly doubles the cost of the aircraft carrier.

    The dramatic cost escalation of the aircraft carrier has threatened to cast a shadow on long-standing defence ties between India and Russia.

    The issue was also discussed when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held talks with then Russian President Vladimir Putin in November last year. India depends on Russia for over 70 percent of its arms exports.

    The Admiral Gorshkov project hit the headlines in 2007 when it was announced that the the Russian dockyard would be unable to meet the 2008 delivery deadline. The date of completion was pushed back to 2010.

    The aircraft carrier is now to be handed over to the Indian Navy in 2012 after 18 months of intensive sea trials.

    The delay has forced India to undertake another refit of its aircraft carrier Viraat to keep it in service till INS Vikramaditya is inducted.

  5. Mihir,

    Are you saying that the Vick is ready by looking at 6th and 8th photo? Those are the photos before ship was stripped for the repair. 7th photo is the one which tells the actual status of the ship. Here you can see the skeleton structure for working on the outer. And a new ski-jump is getting fixed (Compare the flat bed from photos 6th and 8th to the curved/extended ski-jump in 7th photo).

  6. Nope! I was looking at he seventh photo onlee. She’s a beaut! Look at the shiny new metal and the workmen buzzing all over the ship. She almost looks ready for sea trials tomorrow! 🙂

  7. Mihir,

    Russians are asking $1+ billions(nearly initial agreement price) more and $250 millions outright. So that much work is still pending, do you really think it is ready? ;-), If they can make it ready in next 3 years also it will be great.

  8. Shiv,

    I realise that you are probably very busy, but have you seen this story – and could you air your views on it please? A very interesting angle on the MRCA and Groshkov – and one that really displays either ingenious advertising (unlikely) or some incredible out-of-the-box thinking from the IAF:

    http://www.india-defence.com/reports-3849

    Thanks in advance!

  9. I HOPE SOME ONE LOOKS REAL HARD AT HOW MUCH TRAINING AND AT SEA TIME IT TAKES TO KEEP A CARRIER SAFE AND FUNCTIONAL.EVEN THE FRENCH HAVE A HARD TIME OF IT!

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