India wants its mariners to be trained in Russia – Indian Navy Commander

06.06.2011 India is interested in professional training of its naval servicemen in Russia, said Indian Navy Commander Adm Nimal Verma in the interview to RIA Novosti prior to his visit to Russia.

As for the admiral, some time ago Indian mariners attended numerous training courses in Russia. If there are interesting areas of training, India will definitely use this opportunity, said the interviewee.

At present, most of educational programs attended by Indian servicemen are related to import of Russian military equipment – primarily, aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya (former Admiral Gorshkov), deck-based fighters MiG-29K, modernized submarines, and frigates built in Kaliningrad.

Indian Navy Commander is satisfied with pace of work over the aircraft carrier when all financial problems were settled in 2010 and a supplementary contract was signed.

The admiral said the parties had lost much time while negotiating on the price. After that Sevmash shipyard applied high energies to make work move on time; they say, the ship will be ready for commissioning late in 2012, said the commander.

Earlier on, India sent first group of mariners to Russia to be trained at INS Vikramaditya.

According to the schedule, new groups of Indian trainees will come to Russia; the last group will arrive just prior to the ship's delivery, said Adm Verma. As for him, those mariners won't need theoretical knowledge, only special drills at sea. Indian Navy command expects the ship to start trials late in 2011. Takeoff and landing of Russian deck-based aircrafts MiG-29K will be a significant milestone in the ship's record; currently, these aircrafts are operated by air base in Goa, India.

Expecting for the carrier, Indian Navy masters new equipment and along with MiG corporation works on elimination of defects mostly related to aircraft software. Radio electronic systems Sea Serpent installed in Il-38 patrol aircrafts undergo improvement too, added Admiral Verma.

The head of Indian Navy expressed regret that joint Russian-Indian exercise scheduled in Apr had been canceled and is about to discuss cooperation between both navies during his visit to Russia in July.