India to seal price for Gorshkov in 3 mths
Thursday, December 4, 2008 at 5:12 am Under India News 207 views
After a year-long war of words, India has decided to re-negotiate with Russia its $1.5 billion deal for Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier that is to be inducted into the Navy as INS Vikramaditya. The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) that met on Tuesday (December 2) gave its seal of approval to the Defence Ministry to strike a deal for the additional cost for the refit and repair of the 44,500-tonne warship scheduled to join the Indian Navy fleet by 2012.
The negotiations to arrive at a consensus with the Russians over their demand for additional $2 billion would be completed within three months, the CCS decided at the meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at his residence. The decision comes ahead of Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev’s state visit to New Delhi tomorrow (December 4). Both India and Russia had decided during the latter’s Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov’s visit in September that they would finalise the renegotiation before Medvedev’s visit.
New Delhi has already paid the $1.5 billion for the repair and refit work that is currently in progress at the Sevmash Shipyard in northern Russia. The deal, signed in March 2004, also comprised of MiG-29K fighters and Kamov anti-submarine helicopters, the air element of the carrier. While India had wanted to induct the warship, to be the largest in its inventory, in 2009, the delay in the works on the aircraft carrier had forced it rescheduled its induction by 2012.
Over the last one year, Russians have been placing a demand for $2 billion additional cost over the $1.5 billion that New Delhi had already paid for the warship. The earlier deal, signed in March 2004, also comprised of MiG-29K fighters and Kamov anti-submarine helicopters, the air element of the carrier.
While India had wanted to induct the warship, to be the largest in its inventory, in 2009, the delay in the works on the aircraft carrier had forced it to reschedule its induction by 2012. Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta had told reporters that India had reconciled to the delay in Gorshkov’s delivery, but said there was some progress in the works on the warship in recent times.
The ship had been floated at the Russian shipyard already and the work on the ship’s hull had been completed. Work relating to its cables and exteriors were pending, which would be completed before 2010, when the ship would be ready for trials, he said.
With the dispute over the pricing of Gorshkov likely to be over soon, India can hope to deploy an aircraft carrier each on both the eastern and western seaboards, as the existing INS Viraat would be available in service till 2015 after a midlife upgrade. New Delhi would also be fortunate enough to have its indigenous aircraft carrier, currently under construction in Kochi, ready for induction by 2015 when INS Viraat would be decommissioned from service.
The CCS, at the meeting attended among others by Defence Minister A K Antony and Home Minister P Chidambaram, also gave nod to Indian Air Force (IAF) plans to purchase 80 Mi-17-IV helicopters. This proposal was earlier finalised at the two-day India-Russia HLMC meeting before it was sent to the CCS, sources said.
The IAF uses the Mi-17s for transporting troops and delivering supplies and equipment to soldiers posted in high altitude areas in Jammu and Kashmir, particularly at Siachen glacier and Ladakh. As recently as November 29, the IAF has successfully used these helicopters for air-dropping commandos over the Nariman House in Mumbai for eliminating terrorists holding several innocent civilians hostage.
At the HLMC meeting, that ended in New Delhi today, the two sides decided to boost their defence cooperation and discussed various issues related to the existing projects such as the multi-role transport aircraft, T-90 tanks, Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AWACS) for which Russia is providing Il-76 aircraft, and SU-30MKI air superiority fighter upgrade.
Various other Russian teams in the capital, ahead of their President’s visit, would continue to hold talks with their Indian counterparts over the next two days on carrying forward defence projects such as the development of the hypersonic version of BrahMos cruise missile, co-development of a multi-role transport aircraft and the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA), sources added.
(With inputs from agencies)
( This post is from an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by APakistanNews.Com.)
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