INS Vikramaditya to Continue Trials Early in Summer

10.12.2012 Aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya will take sea for trials again early in the summer 2013, said Sergei Novoselov, military export production manager of Sevmash shipyard.

Implementation of the program was considered at the meeting in Arkhangelsk regional administration. Arkhangelsk Governor Igor Orlov, commanding officer of the carrier's Indian crew Capt S. Barry, chief of the observation group K. Shrinivas, and the shipyard's defense export manager Sergei Novoselov ttok part in the meeting.

At present, Sevmash shipyard works on the defects revealed during sea trials of the aircraft carrier. Among failed systems was foreign-manufactured equipment.

Sevmash actively got in defect elimination process, now hot works are going on. Program of recovery activities has been agreed with numerous contractors and trial participants, including MiG and Kamov, Russian Navy Commander-in-Chief and president of United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) Andrei Diachkov who had approved the program.

"No shipyard other than Sevmash could cope with such tremendous tasks as repair and modernization of the carrier at high-grade level", said Capt S. Barry at the meeting.

He headed Indian crew during the ship's sea trials in the summer. Through 3 months of trials, INS Vikramaditya had displayed excellent maneuvering performance and accelerated up to 27.9 knots. MiG experts highly appreciated geometry of the ski-ramp making possible to put aircraft on required trajectory perfectly. During the trials, Vikramaditya had covered over 12,000 nautical miles. In total, 517 aircraft sorties were held throughout the sea trials (MiG-29K, Su-33, Kamov helicopters). General conclusion is that the ship proved herself as a good aircraft carrier.

Russian and Indian presidents will meet in New Delhi soon. Among other issues to be discussed, the parties will talk about the carrier's trials completion and delivery to Indian Navy.