13.02.2009
Representatives of the Sevmash shipyards will join a Russian governmental delegation traveling to India to attempt to negotiate a higher price for the upgrading of the Indian aircraft carrier Vikramaditia, which is the former Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, said Anastasia Nikitinskaya, the deputy head of the shipyards’ press service.
According to Nikitinskaya, the delegation will be led by Alexander Fomin, the deputy director of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation. “The negotiations are more important for us and tense,” Nikolai Kalistratov, the general director of the shipyards, announced before departing for India.
A cooperation agreement signed in January 2004 in New Delhi stipulated the transfer of the shell of the
Admiral Gorshkov to the Indian side free of charge, provided the ship was upgraded and armed with Russian warplanes. Russia was also to train the Indian crew of the ship and create an infrastructure for a base in the water zone of the Indian Ocean. The deal was initially estimated at $1.5 billion, of which $974 million was to go into the transformation of the ship into a full-scale aircraft carrier. The work was expected to be completed in 2008. However, the shipyards repeatedly fell behind schedule. The Russian side talked of mistakes in the initial assessment of the amount of work necessary to upgrade the ship and asked for additional payments.
Sevmash has said that 40% of the work needed has been performed on the ship. Provided “rhythmic” funding, the factory says it could complete the modernization and begin in-factory tests in 2011. The ship is expected to be transferred to the Indian Navy in 2012, and it will be India’s biggest warship. The ship will presumably serve for 30 years.
The
Admiral Gorshkov, previously named
Baku, was built in Nikolaev. The ship was transferred to the Soviet Northern Fleet in 1987. It has a length of 283 meters, a width of 51 meters, and water displacement of 45,000 tonnes.
Source:
Translation:
RusNavy.com
