The newly refurbished INS Vikramaditya aircraft carrier took to the sea for the first time on Friday.
The carrier sailed out for crucial pre-delivery trials in the early hours of June 8 from the berth of the Sevmash shipyard in Russia’s northern city of Severodvinsk, where the former Soviet heavy aviation cruiser Gorshkov had been converted into a regular aircraft carrier christened Vikramaditya.
During the trials, scheduled to last 120 days, all the ship’s systems will be tested.
“The main part of the trials is testing aircraft takeoff and landing,” Sevmash chief Andrei Dyachkov told The Hindu. “The programme of tests is very tight as deck aviation can operate only from June to September in the harsh conditions of Arctic seas.”
The test flights will be carried out using two Russian aircraft, MiG-29K and MiG-35, flown by Russian pilots. Russia last year delivered to the Indian Navy 12 MiG-29K single-seaters and 4 MiG-29KUB two-seaters, which will be based on the Vikramaditya. India has ordered another batch of 29 MiG-29K deck fighters that will also provide airpower for the Vikrant aircraft carrier being built in India.
A part of the Indian crew of the Vikramaditya, who have just completed training in Russia, have joined the Russian team for the carrier’s first sea voyage; more Indian sailors will fly in from India for the trials later, bringing the total naval personnel on board to 2,700, almost double the ship’s regular crew.
If all goes well, an Indian acceptance team will board the carrier at later stages of the sea trials. Upon completion of the tests the Vikramaditya will return to port to allow finishing touches to be made before delivery in December.
“We are confident we can keep the schedule and hand over the ship to India on December 4,” Mr Dyachkov said.
India has a very long coast line and will need a minimum of 18 Air Craft Carriers. Nothing wrong in out sourcing. Once we outsource the first few then our own ship yards can absorb the technology and learn to build world class Flat Tops. What is important is that all our equipment should be world class and state of the art - not hand me downs. Avoid second hand refurbishes and go for newly ordered and built to specification kind of ships.
It will be very apt to name the next Career as 'Rajendra Cholan' or just 'Pallava' or 'Chola'.These dynasties were great sea faring kingdoms and spread Indian Culture, Religion and trade through out Asia-Pacific region.It is unfortunate that the powers that be at the centre have totally ingonerd the history and contributions of these two mighty kingdoms. The Sri Vijaya empire,the'Kadaram'(Kadal Haram - a sea necklace of islands starting from Anadamans upto Bali)Expeditions and Cambodia Pallava 'Varman' temple contributions should be recognized.
Expectation to have 18 CBG(carrier battle group) is a far fetched dream for a country like india which won't have the budjet to operate them and for a reference point it should be noted that even the mighty U.S has only 11 CBG's. Moreover CBG's would require the support of destroyers,frigates,corvettes ,submarines etc..INDIA should look to have ideally 5 CBG's and instead focus on increasing offensive weapons like SSN's like CHAKRA...
It is shameful that India had to pay exorbitant amount of money to convert an old Soviet era
ship to a "functioning" aircraft carrier. India cannot possibly hope to be counted among the
leading military powers when it is dependent on foreign technology for all it's critical defense
platforms such as battle ships or fighter aircrafts. A nation of 1.2 billion cannot produce an
aircraft carrier and is taken for a ride on much delayed and overpriced cruise on an old
aircraft carrier by its trusted friendly country. It hurts to see other countries can take
advantage of India's technology and manufacturing weakness.
The best news that has come out of this report is, India is already building its own aircraft carrier 'Vikrant'. As India has ordered 29 MIG-29K deck fighters to arm our Vikrant, one can only asume that construction of Vikrant is almost complete. Brilliant work India! Keep moving forward. Vande Martharam!
Ever wondered why the LCA never got off the ground and has been in research and experimentation for 30 years? You think India does not have, or even did not have the capability to complete this year's ago? Should we also think that India never had the right Marine Designers, the fabrication specialists, structural specialists to build a warship? What a crying shame, that we not only not build our own armaments, but also take thrill in the fact that we are acquiring a refurbished one?
This ship is a plain insult to any navy! It was originally commissioned as the Kiev class carrier Baku for Russian junk VTOL aircraft that were never commissioned. So the ship functioned as a missile cruiser with massive radars that never worked, boilers that exploded.. and was basically a disaster ship. Now fixing the junk was too expensive, so the Russians decommissioned it, and later found a buyer in corrupt India. This ship is the foremost example of large scale corruption amongst everyone involved in its acquisition. People who promoted this buy are not the least interested in India's national security, and would be persecuted in any decent democracy! Btw, are these guys (comments above) who say this is a marvel, etc., kidding? Or are they plain stupid!
To all the people who are commenting on relying more on indigenous military hardware, consider how we miserably failed with Tejas (LCA). Billions of rupees and thousands of man-hours was spent on making an aircraft which the Air Force still cannot commission in its fleet. It is still doing its test sorties. We should do what we are good in. Boasting our R&D and investing in fresh talent rather than relentlessly breaking our head in developing things which will turn obsolete by the time it will see the light of the day.
Great commetns Guys, but i have a few questiones 1.How many Indians (who are good students)would like to work for Govt.of India . 2.How many IITians actually would be keen to work for ISRO,DRDO or any other defence establishment? 3.How many students doing aerospace engineering,naval artitiecture ect would like to joing mazgaon dock, naval dock yard ...... I we have a good brain , we only think of how to make money by using it. When that is the normal trend why should we ask such questions.
Shame on the indian govt.We are seeing their ability from LCA tejas,bofors,and now this..... Waiting for Vikramaditya scam.I am really ashamed of being an indian.
If an old decommissioned aircraft costs 2.35 billion dollars and puts pressure on the expenditure of the government ,then think what will happen to the government if it builds indigenous aircraft or if required imports from other country?. And if it does that i don't think that deficit is going to reduce below 10%..So it is a safer option and also it will boost the economic ties between Russia and India...
Welcome the second-hand, overpriced, delivery delayed warship! Hats off to the 'time-tested friendship'!!!!!
well said Abdulla, I agree. Buying and rechristening is great but, that's now the solution. Our Govt. should stop wasting money & energy in sick public sector companies like Air India, BSNL, etc. and build strategic important organizations (in defense sector, fighter jets, carriers, sub-marines, hi-tech defense equipment & intelligence systems) & work with PPP with clear cut guidelines. These organizations should be run autonomous by reputed people with high level of integrity, accountability & guidelines. Indigenization, Innovation & quality should be the mission. This is a dream.
We need atleast 18 carrier battle groups to defend against Pakistani and Chinese navies. We should continue to build carriers after the construction of the first indegenous carrier. After building 2-3 carrier conventional carriers, we should start building nuclear powered carriers. We should also building 100000+ tonnage carrier to increase the number of jets on the carrier. We should also build adequate number of submarines and other ships to complete the carrier battle group.
A marvel of Soviet brute engineering era, it is only justified that the Soviet Naval Ensign is raised to see off Vikramaditya. Russia has achieved a remarkable feat by turning a cruiser hulk in to a functional aircraft carrier. Unlike American defence supplies, these Russian weapons are sanction free. Here is wishing all the best to Vikramaditya and her crew to safely and successfully finish her sea trials. The era of conventional fighter operation shall begin once again in Indian Navy after a gap of 30 years! Jai Hind!
You got to respect the Russian's, for they have built a masterpiece. Wanna see when India does that..!!
Very well work done by Indians especially DRDO scientists.....Go ahead!!!
I like To See India self suffcient in terms of Security needs. Its much more cheaper,efficeient and we can even has more secracy in terms of weopns capabilities...
Why Indian defence is depending on the other nations waste products and spending a huge amount for the acquisition of it.
why the goverment is spending 2.35 billion dollars on an old decommissioned aircraft carrier,when there is 10% defict in our budget.atleast they should give the order to an indian shipyard so that we can reduce our import reliant defense department to look into our domestic suppliers.
Well with 1.3 billion intelligent indians can India duplicate the success by building VIKRAMADITYA by the dozens by adding more value? yes, dr. kalam will deliver. We need Trust- support -discipline - hard work- dedication- finesse- integration of technology from various agencies /depts- motivation- zero interference by politicians and bureaucrats- govt- public -pvt entrepreneurs together under one umbrella can mfg these by the dozens. we need genearls like V.K.SINGH-GEN-THIMMMAYYA-GEN CARIAPPA- SAM MANEKSHAW-etc top brass. thoroughbred people with Tall personality- highly motivated - crisp- brilliant -highly disciplined- well trained -result oriented- -no-nonsense guys-we need these personalities to lead us from the front-hold the ground when they walk and represent india with broad shoulders and head high up in the sky.
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