Admiral Gorshkov is on sale again! Radu Alexandru CUCUTA
April 22, 2009
The project for refitting the ex-Soviet-era aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov will be completed by 2012, according to the statements made by Vladimir Pakhomov, president of Russia's United Shipbuilding Corporation. The ship, already known as INS Vikramaditya is to enter the service of the Indian Navy by then. The statement puts an end to a long series of uncertainties as to the capability of the Russian armament industry to complete such major projects that started in 2004, when the cost of the program was revised and New Delhi opposed the “exorbitant” 1.2 billion dollars estimate. According to the same source, the bargain was struck in February 2009 and India will have to pay an extra of 800 million dollars for the 1982-launched ship (RIA-Novosti, The Times).
The announcement made by senior Russian officials is but the last episode in the decade-long history of the Russian aircraft carrier. The project for the construction of the vessel began in 1978 at Nikolayev shipyard. Launched in 1982, the Baku which featured technologies that were later to be implemented on the Riga (known afterwards as Leonid Brezhnev, Tbilisi and finally Admiral Kuznetsov) was commissioned only in 1987. In 1992 it was the object of a modernization program that was never completed, as in 2004 a deal was made with India for the refitting and the subsequent sale of the carrier to the Indian Navy (where it is to replace Centaur-class INS Viraat, former HMS Hermes, the flagship of the Indian Fleet).
The reevaluation of the costs of the project raised several questions as to the opportunity of the purchase of a ship that spent most of its history near the docks or undergoing serious repairs. There are several technical arguments that advise against such a move. On the one hand, the ship was not designed as an aircraft-carrier per se. According to the Soviet doctrine of preventing the control of the seas, the ship was designed as a “heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser”. In fact, its force lay not within its aircraft (the vertical take-off/landing aircraft employed by the Soviets were considered no match for their Western counterparts) but in its role as an important part of the air-to-ship missile power of the four Soviet carriers/cruisers that were to be built, which posed a serious threat for the Western navies. Thus the refitting program is trying to convert a ship build two decades ago with a different role in mind into a modern orthodox aircraft carrier that is to perform a different strategic task (namely enforce a control of the seas policy). The performances of the other Russian ships built at the same time are not encouraging - the Kuznetsov which has undergone serious transformations was confronted with serious problems (in February 2009 it was in the center of the West Cork oil-spill, after in January a crewman was killed in a fire that erupted on board). Reportedly, the ship was accompanied in her Atlantic voyage by two tugs which were to intervene in case of breakdown. The Varyag, the other Soviet-built aircraft-carrier which was sold the China by Ukraine and was to become a casino in Macau has been lingering by the docks in Dalian since June 2005. This being the context, India’s decision may seem puzzling at first glance.
However, there are several arguments that determined the Indian Navy to press for the deal to go forward. The acquisition program of the Indian Navy is not limited to the buying of Admiral Gorshkov. A second Vikrant-class aircraft carrier is to be completed by 2014 by the Cochin Shipyard. Alongside the Vikramaditya, the two carriers are to exhibit the latest advances by the Indian arms industry – the 2002 launched multi-role helicopters and the 2007 launched multi-role jet fighters. Besides the pride of fielding an entirely home-made naval force, one must acknowledge that there is no severe pressure on the Indian Navy – none of India’s neighbors is capable for the moment of mounting a challenge to New Delhi’s policy.
