17.02.2010
Supplement agreement on aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov will be tied in Feb-March, informs Tuesday Interfax-AVN citing Alexander Fomin, deputy director of Russia's Federal Service for Military Technical Cooperation (FSMTC).
"Hopefully, the supplement agreement [on the carrier] will be signed in the nearest future. Namely, in February or March", said A. Fomin specifying that the point of such agreement is to outline additional financing and terms of contract performance.
"The agreement provides project implementation terms as the end of 2012", said A. Fomin who heads Russian delegation at defense show
DEFEXPO INDIA-2010 taking place in India.
The delivery contract of heavy aircraft carrying cruiser
Admiral Gorshkov (presently called
Vikramaditya) was signed with India in 2004. The tied contract provided $974 mln for modernization and $530 mln for delivery of 16 deck-based fighters
MiG-29K and ASW helicopters
Ka-31 and
Ka-27.
However, having paid about $458 mln, India suspended further contract payments since Jan 2007. In Nov 2007 Russian party complained about underestimating of works. After visit of Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev to India in Dec 2008, Indian government's security committee approved starting negotiations on contract cost review.
The ship was supposed to be delivered late 2008. However, delivery terms of the carrier were postponed due to increased scope of works. According to
Sevmash shipyard officials, the ship is approx 70% completed. At present, transaction costs are informally evaluated as $2.3 bln.
In case of uniform financing,
Sevmash plans to complete modernization and start builder's sea trials in 2011. Presumably, the carrier's service life will be at least 30 years.
Aircraft carrier
Admiral Gorshkov [formerly known as
Baku] was built in Nikolayev. She was commissioned into Northern Fleet in 1987. The ship had the length of 283 meters, beam of 51 meters and displacement over 45,000 tons.
Source: , photo: Admiral Gorshkov (military-today.com)
