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India Takes Delivery Of INS Vikramaditya

: Dec 6, 2013 - : 8:30 am

New Delhi: India has taken delivery of INS Vikramaditya, a Russian-built aircraft carrier refitted for the navy, on Nov. 16, after a delay of more than five years.
“The 44,570-ton, 284-meter-long (932-ft.) warship, which is a refurbished version of  Russian Kiev-class Admiral Gorshkov, has left the Russian territorial waters and is heading for India,” a defense ministry official says.
The aircraft carrier is expected to take about a months to arrive in India after its commissioning on Nov. 16, and it will be based in Karwar Naval base, in southern state of Karnataka.
“The sea trial tests of the aircraft carrier were carried out successfully, and all malfunctions, which were found during the trials last year, were completely eliminated,” the official adds.
During the trials the warships clocked a speed of  more than 29 knots (about 55 kilometers per hour) against a planned 28 knots.
Once the carrier is inducted, the INS Vikramaditya will be the biggest ship in the Indian military, able to carry 24 MiG-29K/KUBs and six to eight Kamov Ka-31 airborne early warning helicopters.
The numerical strength of the crew will be about 2,000 people. The hull of the warship is provided with modern equipment, on board systems and mechanisms.
The aircraft carrier is also equipped with new navigation and radar systems, modern systems of communications and aviation control.
INS Vikramaditya, which is now five years past its original 2008 delivery date, was supposed to have been handed over to India in December 2012 after the contract was renegotiated, but had to undergo additional repairs after last year’s sea trials revealed that the vessel’s boilers were not fully functional due to problems with their insulation.
The carrier deal between India and Russia was signed in 2004, but delivery was delayed by four years due to cost revisions by Russia to retrofit the ship. When the agreement originally was signed, it cost $1.5 billion, but that was later revised to $2.3 billion with a planned delivery date of December 2012. Despite the additional delay to 2013, the cost will remain at $2.3 billion,
According to the package intergovernmental agreement, the hull of the aircraft carrier was handed over to India gratis with the condition of its modernization at the military shipyard Sevmash.
The Indian navy, as of now, has a single carrier, the INS Viraat. The warship has served the Navy for 25 years and was due to be decommissioned in 2002.
India is working on two important aircraft carrier projects at the moment, including the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) and the Gorshkov project.
In August,  India launched  its first indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant. The launch of the 37,500-ton warship, which has a length of 260 meters and is 60 meters wide, was behind schedule by three years. It is set to go for extensive trials in 2016 before being inducted into the Navy by 2018 end.
“With the commissioning of Vikramaditya, Indian navy’s reach and ability to respond in real time to developing situations in our area of responsibility would see a quantum leap,” says vice-admiral Shekhar Sinha.
Admiral Gorshkov, is a Project 1143.4 or modified Kiev class aircraft carrier commissioned by the Soviet Navy in 1987 and decommissioned in 1996.

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