Admiral Gorshkov: Revised date of delivery

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 16:32:53 GMT
Arrival of aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov further delayed New Delhi/Moscow, Sep 17 (PTI) The delivery of Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov to Indian Navy, which is already behind schedule, has been further hit due to malfunctioning of the warship''s engines during sea trials and it is now expected to arrive in Indian waters in the second half of next year.
The ship was originally supposed to have been delivered by 2009 but it''s handing over to the Indian Navy has been marred by cost overruns among other issues.
An Indian Navy team on the ship has indicated that there are problems with the warship''s boilers, sources said here.
Reports in Russian media have suggested that the aircraft carrier would be arriving in India by October 2013.
The ship, rechristened INS Vikramaditya, was scheduled for commissioning into the Indian Navy by December 4, this year.
The sources dismissed reports that other systems of the warship had also been damaged due to the engine malfunctioning.
They said India is expected to ask the Russian side to hand over the carrier to the Indian side within the stipulated delivery schedule and carry out the required overhauls within that time frame.
The deal for the aircraft carrier was signed in 2004 but the price of the ship was renegotiated and later put at USD 2 .3 billion after repeated cost revision demands by the Russian side for repair and overhaul. The ship will be part of Indian Navy''s plans to operate an aircraft carrier in each of its two seaboards.
At the moment, its only operational aircraft carrier is the INS Viraat, which is in the last leg of its service after having gone through several upgrades.
Admiral Gorshkov was a Kiev class aircraft carrier laid down in 1978 at Nikolayev South in Ukraine, launched in 1982, and commissioned in 1987.
Arrival of aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov further delayed
Comment: The jinxed Aircraft Carrier. Poor choice made by the Navy. The Chinese build similar ones for one tenth of the cost of Russian vintage.

Gorshkov deal: Navy officer in honey-trap?

TNN, Apr 13, 2010, 04.03am IST

NEW DELHI: A senior naval officer, closely associated with the contentious project to acquire aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov from Russia, which saw several twists and turns, is now in the dock for alleged improper personal conduct.

The Indian Navy is on the verge of completing a high-level board of inquiry (BoI) against Commodore Sukhjinder Singh for alleged ‘‘loose moral conduct’’ while he was posted in Russia from 2005 to 2007.

This came after certain objectionable photographs of Commodore Singh apparently surfaced around a fortnight ago.

The seriousness of the affair, in what could even be a classic ‘‘honey-trap operation’’, can be gauged from the fact that Navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma has already “briefed” defence minister A K Antony about the case.

The BoI headed by a vice-admiral is also probing whether Commodore Singh’s “personal transgressions” had any bearing on the Gorshkov deal, which was renegotiated and inked afresh just last month after two-three years of contentious negotiations over the huge cost escalation in the carrier’s refit.

India will now have to pay $2.33 billion for the aircraft carrier’s refit to Russia and wait till early-2013 to get the delivery.

Commodore Singh was in Russia as the warship production superintendent overseeing the refit of Gorshkov till 2007.

While holding that the BoI report will be out in “a day or two”, Navy officials contended that the likelihood of Commodore Singh “compromising” the Gorshkov price negotiations were “negligible”.

“Preliminary indications are that the involvement has been at a personal level. He was the juniormost of the nine-member commercial negotiations committee,” said an official.

“Moreover, he had already been posted to the quality assurance wing when the actual work on the refit price was done in the latter half of 2009,” he added.
Gorshkov deal: Navy officer in honey-trap?

On his return to Delhi, Commodore Singh was appointed to the crucial post of principal director (Aircraft Carrier Project) looking after the Gorshkov project from the Indian Navy headquarters.

He was also a member of the cost negotiation committee (CNC) set up last year to resolve the unprecedented Russian demand for an increase in the carrier's refit cost.

India had last month cleared the $2.35 billion revised price for the carrier.

The warship, originally purchased for $1.5 billion, is currently undergoing a refit at Russia's Sevmash shipyard. Of the total cost, $974 million was meant for the refit and the balance for a squadron of MiG-29K combat jets that will be deployed on the vessel.

Citing additional costs for the refit, Moscow had jacked up the price to $2.9 billion, while New Delhi wanted this to be scaled back to $2.1 billion. The revised price was decided on during Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's visit to New Delhi last month.(IANS)
Indian Navy probing officer handling Gorshkov project

A navy source said Singh was “hand-picked” in 2004 to look after the Gorshkov refit in Russia. He had been a favourite of the naval top brass and was involved in all ministry of defence (MoD) and naval delegation visits to Russia to look into the Gorshkov deal. There is no instance in recent memory of India assenting to revise an agreed defence contract and pay almost three times more, as was the case with Gorshkov. Though it was being justified by the government as because of the complex nature of the contract, many within the navy as well as others expressed outrage about the price hike demand by Russia. Many had informally called for the cancellation of the contract.
Navy officer in Gorshkov deal faces sex-scandal inquiry

Honey trap to hike up price of Gorshkov
New Delhi, April 14: Naval headquarters is investigating if a honey trap sprung on a senior officer compromised it during hard-bargaining with Russia for aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov.

The officer, a commodore, was posted in Severodvinsk as the warship production superintendent from 2005 to 2008. It was his responsibility to oversee the refit of the carrier.

A CD of photographs delivered to naval headquarters shows the officer in intimate contact with a woman, probably Russian, at the time of his overseas posting. This has led to suspicions that the officer was blackmailed into making recommendations that forced India to accept the Russian demand for a huge hike in the carrier’s price.
Honey Trap

India’s dilemma: U.S. or Russian weapons

Toronto, ON, Canada, — India is facing a decision that will affect its military and political future for a long time to come: whether to buy Russian or U.S. military hardware. Cost and capability are critical, but history and political realities cannot be ignored. U.S. high-tech weapons are like a finely tuned sports car, whereas similar Russian weapons are built like a freight truck – rugged and cheap. Third world nations tend to prefer the Russian hardware. Other than being cheap, Russian equipment does not require highly advanced infrastructure for maintenance, and the Russians do not insist on intrusive end-user monitoring.

U.S. weapons are the preferred choice of its allies, of course. Others with deep pockets, such as Arab nations, also buy these weapons. There is a huge marketing and publicity effort under way in India to discredit Russian hardware, partly thanks to defense hardware salesmen with political connections. Also, the Indian military would like to diversify its procurement sources. It will prefer any deal that includes technology transfer.
Read more:
India’s dilemma: U.S. or Russian weapons

The Russian Charm

India and Russia have enjoyed close strategic relations during much of the Cold War era. Throughout the Cold War, the Soviet Union provided India with the crucial political, economic, military and moral support needed to put India on economic prosperity and political and military strength. However, the military cooperation remained the most prominent aspect of the bilateral relations, with the Soviet Union accounting for nearly seventy percent of the military hardware possessed by India till the disintegration of the former Soviet Union in December 1991. In the course of last 17 years Russia has transformed itself into a giant booming economy and a developing democracy.

The Russian Government is investing millions of Roubles in public diplomacy. The show casing includes websites, newspaper advertisements in foreign nations, and foundations to promote Russian language and culture. It is obvious that Russian communism has a taken a U- turn to Capitalism. You will be amazed to see the wonder of Russia in the websites.

Russia Profile
RIA-Novosti
Photograph Slide show of Russian Wonder