Rogozin: Vikramaditya Broke Down Due to Poland and British Equipment

24.09.2012 During sea trials of aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya upgraded in Russia for Indian Navy, serious failures were found in some systems produced in Poland and Great Britain, said Russian vice premier Dmitry Rogozin.

"Some defects were revealed in aggregates delivered by Poland and Britain. But aircraft flight tests passed successfully", Rogozin posted on his Facebook page.

Earlier on, president of United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) Andrei Diachkov reported to Dmitry Rogozin on the situation around the ship. According to him, Chinese materials were used when assembling of boilers for the carrier. "The boilers were made on India's design. In Russian Navy, we use oil-fired boilers. But Indian partners wanted us to make boilers working on diesel fuel", reports Interfax citing Diachkov.

Answering Rogozin's question what materials were used for thermal insulation, Diachkov said that "fireclay bricks were made in China". "Unfortunately, Russia has lost production technology of that material", added the USC director.

As for him, boilers cannot work in full swing during dockside trials at the shipyard's mooring quay. "They were tested at 40% power", Diachkov said.

When the carrier reached full power for the first time at sea trials, fireproof brickwork in boiler furnaces was partially destructed, said the USC director.

"Alternatively disabling each boiler, we repaired the brickwork during sea trials, but nonetheless it broke again after next trial run at high-power modes", he noted.

Diachkov added that boiler installations used in Russian ships were insulated with asbestos boards; Indian party wanted this material to be excluded.

Trials of the aircraft carrier held in the White and the Barents seas revealed new defects, said Diachkov.

"There are some other broken down systems, including those purchased from NATO countries. They are three refrigerating machines, nitrogen generators and other equipment. Suppliers were offered by Indian side", Diachkov stressed.

He also pointed out that repair of INS Vikramaditya was planned to finish by May 2013.

It was reported earlier that Russia again would postpone delivery of light aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya based on ex-Soviet aircraft-carrying cruiser Admiral Gorshkov to Indian Navy due to problems of powerplant found at sea trials.

However, officials of Sevmash shipyard say the situation is not as serious as the press represents. The case will be puzzled out by a special expert panel.

Later on, it was reported that test flights of deck-based fighters MiG-29K/KUB were held on INS Vikramaditya according to schedule despite problems of the ship's powerplant.