The Russians seem to be playing "in for a dime, in for a dollar" with India on the Vikramaditya [ex-Gorshkov], since the price for delivering the thing just keeps going up and up. But the two countries have so many other irons in the fire that I assume the Indians will find some other pain points to induce the Russians to finally deliver the goods.
As for the Vikrant Indigenous Aircraft Carrier, it is more of a stretch for Cochin Shipyard than building a carrier would be for a Chinese or Korean or Japanese shipyard. But Cochin is a real shipyard and ersatz-Vikrant is not completely outside their experience base.
The real question is money. Acquisition programs in India have tended to drag on and on [eg, Arjun MBT], but this has in part been due to a lack of money, and a lack of political resolve to spend money. Both of these factors seem to have changed of late, and overall India and Pakistan seem to have embarked on a fairly impressive arms race across the board, to include naval forces.
i am not sure about the Gorshkov because it has been delayed so much but i would think after spending live over 500million dollars they will have the ship at some point in the future,and they already signed a deal for the carrier version of MiG-29s, and not to mention they bought the ship so its not like they are just gonna scrap it after spending so much money. The carrier they are building has already been started last i heard,though i am not exactly sure about that.They have experience with carriers,they ahve one right now so i am sure they will get these two carrier in the near future.
It seems to me these plans are extremely optimistic. Carriers are expensive and complex.
Will India's plans work they way the government intends?
Any input would be appreciated.
I think the thing is when you talk Aircraft carriers you think of the huge US Navy nuclear powered aircraft carriers with big air wings, extremely expensive in research and design, and extremely expensive to operate. Which are suited to the power projection requirements of the USN.
On top of that when India is associated with a Aircraft Carrier people tend to become a bit sarcastic (as the image of India is mostly as a under developed nation).
Many other nations have operated conventional powered smaller-medium sized aircraft carriers (Italy, Spain, Britain, India, Brazil, France, Russia) and operated them at times of war (1971 India Pakistan War, 1982 Falklands Wars), France has operated medium sized nuclear powered aircraft carriers.
For the future plans of the Indian Navy:
The funds for the first Indigenous Aircraft Carrier(IAC) have been alloted, the design is complete, the capacity of the Cochin ship yard (CSL) has been increased, required equipment and training is done, more than half of the blocks (integrated hull outfitting and painting method) are complete.
The process of making the carrier is complex, however Indian Navy and CSL have can and are utilizing the consulting services of many European and Russian Firms that have experience with similar ships, Indian Navy itself is not a novice as far as aircraft carriers are concerned.
The design process for the second IAC is underway.
Once the second IAC is under construction the design of the third IAC will start.
The time line for the completion of the three carriers under the IAC program is 2022-2025. (commissioning of the first in 2012-2015, second in 2015-2018, third in 2022-2025)
The Russian carrier was supposed to cost some 700 Million dollars for the refit and the plan for it was to serve between 2007-2022-25 (15-18 years) decommissioning as the third IAC was commissioned.
As the cost of the Russian aircraft carrier is now more than double the original amount and the ability of the Russian Shipyard to complete the construction in time is suspect there is a good chance that the program might be canceled.
The reason for the three carriers is to have at least two aircraft carrier in service at all times, one with the eastern fleet and one with the western fleet.
i was just wondering why is the work on Gorshkov taking so long???,i know that they are changing the whole flight deck and taking out the missiles system in the front of the ships,but by the time Gorshkov comes into service it will have been delayed by almost 7 or 8 years,
i was just wondering why is the work on Gorshkov taking so long???,i know that they are changing the whole flight deck and taking out the missiles system in the front of the ships,but by the time Gorshkov comes into service it will have been delayed by almost 7 or 8 years,
It was a government to government agreement, and the shipyard was run by people who took things too casually, without assessing the amount of work they had to do through professional people with experience they adopted the 'lets throw a figure and see wait' approach.
When they started working on the carrier all hell broke loose the wiring it self turned out to be more than twice the amount originally calculated, most of the equipment they said would not need to be replaced (a lot of small things like motors, pumps etc. turn out to be a lot of money) was found to be in need of replacement, they had the problem of hiring and subcontracting a lot of the work they originally thought they could do themselves.
The previous head of the shipyard was quoted as saying it would have been easier to build a new aircraft carrier when the cost increase and time delay came into news (he was fired). The shipyard has lost other projects from private players.
Indian Navy has a lot of requirement for ships to meet the services it is supposed to provide and the price escalation is so much that it has stopped making sense to invest any money into the projects.
That is why they are not releasing the money (200 million dollars) that the shipyard is asking for to the work on carrier to continue while price negotiations for the eventual price continue.
Chances are if the Russian Gov. does not share a part of the bill, the project will be dead.
thats too bad,it would probably help the indians build and operate thier own "conventional" carrier if they had the Gorshkov
They already have Viraat--she's old but still serviceable. There aren't that many reasons why India needs an indigenously designed carrier--they'd be better served getting a piece of the UK/French joint project that will result in the HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales--it'd save time and money.
They already have Viraat--she's old but still serviceable. There aren't that many reasons why India needs an indigenously designed carrier--they'd be better served getting a piece of the UK/French joint project that will result in the HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales--it'd save time and money.
you are probably right,and that probably why they tried to get the Gorshkov, and that is clearly not working out too well so maybe they though one build at home would benefit them the most.Also it would provide jobs and help build up their defense industry.But if you were to get one build from the Brits or what ever you got to get a plane,and i do not see the Indians getting any JSF anytime soon.I think it makes sense for them to work with the Russians and get the Gorshkov
Indian aircraft carrier developments
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