Gorshkov to be inducted into navy by end-2008 Mumbai, Nov 30 (UNI)
The Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov will be inducted into the Indian Navy as INS Vikramaditya by the end of 2008, a top naval officials said today. Top-line MiG-29 aircraft would be inducted along with the carrier to augment the air arm of the navy, Vice Admiral Sangram Singh Byce, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Western Naval Command, told reporters on board the country’s sole carrier INS Viraat. Replying to a query about the fate of Sea Harrier jets currently serving on the Viraat, he said the aircraft would ‘‘continue for another five years’’. Three Project 17 class frigates and three Project 15A destroyers are being built at the Mazagon Docks here. Construction of six Scorpene submarines would begin soon at the same dockyard, he said. In an attempt to boost the navy’s amphibious warfare capabilities, a Magar-class landing ship, INS Shardul, will be commissioned next month at Karwar. An Austin-class planding platform dock, formerly known as USS Trenton, will join the navy early next year after being christened INS Jalashva, he said.
New Delhi, Dec 15 - The refit of the Indian Navy's Russian aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya has 'dropped behind schedule due to extensive structural work', Britain's leading Jane's Defence Weekly - reports.
According to JDW, Viktor Shestov, deputy director of the Sevmashpredpriyatiye shipyard in Severodvinsk in northern Russia that is refurbishing the 44,500-tonne Kiev-class carrier, declared that the delay was 'linked to the fact that serious faults in some structures were revealed in the course of the final fault detection procedure'.
INS Vikramaditya is scheduled to enter operational service in 2009 following its final refitting.
Twenty MiG-29Ks, including four trainers, will constitute INS Vikramaditya's air arm.
Meanwhile, construction of the Indian Navy's 37,500-tonne Project 71 aircraft carrier, delayed by over two years, is expected to begin soon at the Cochin Shipyard Limited - using the 'modular' method of building compartment blocks.