The Indian Navy will take charge of the much-awaited aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya (Admiral Gorshkov), by December 4 this year, but it will be early 2013 by the time the warship reaches home.
The induction of the Kiev-class aircraft carrier will allow the Navy to have two such platforms for a while; a third indigenous aircraft carrier is under construction at the Kochi shipyard.
The December 4, 2012 date to commission INS Vikramaditya has been “cast in stone” Vice- Admiral Ganesh Mahadevan, Chief of Material, told a group of journalists.
Admiral Mahadevan, who led the team which renegotiated the aircraft carrier whose final price tag is $2.34 billion, however, would not be in service to see the warship join the Navy as he retires by the end of this month after a 40-year career.
Reports from Russia earlier this year indicated that the aircraft carrier would go in for sea trials. Sources in the Navy said that after its induction some of the tests would be done before the warship set sail to India.
While the Comptroller and Auditor-General objected to the steep rise in the price as well as the length of its service, Vice-Admiral Mahadevan said that when compared to the original contract, the revised figure was for a warship that was over 90 per cent new with an estimated life of 40 years.
Value additions
There have been changes to the hull, with value additions done to modify the cruiser class to meet the force requirement. The revised contract envisages changing the entire length of cables/wiring running into thousands of kilometres; delivering infrastructure machinery to support repairs and maintenance in Indian docks; training of personnel from Indian docks and personnel on board the aircraft carrier; Ten years of spare parts from the time the carrier is delivered to be handed over along with the vessel; repair and technical detail documents to support maintenance; and pilot training/trials comes as part of the package.
