March 26, 2008 Admiral Gorshkov: The
Ship that Launched
a Thousand Rumors By Ilya
Kramnik
For months now, a Soviet-era warship has been making waves - and
filling countless column inches - in both Russia and India.
The ship at the centre of the storm is an aircraft carrier called
the Admiral Gorshkov - or the INS Vikramaditya - which Russia has
been refitting for sale to the Indian Navy. Last year the Gorshkov
was the subject of controversy after the Russians announced that
they could not complete the refit within budget or on schedule.
The deal to refit and convert the Admiral Gorshkov is one of the
most ambitious projects Russia has embarked on in recent years. It
involves not only its shipbuilding industry but also a contract to
supply MiG-29K aircraft for the ship, and hundreds of jobs at
Russian defence plants.
Reports about the possible sale of the ship to India first appeared
in the late 1990s. Plans were also mooted to convert it to a
classical-type aircraft carrier basing 20 to 25 MiG-29 aircraft. A
contract was finally concluded in 2004, under which Russia pledged
to hand over the ship and a complement of deck fighters to India and
to train its crew for an inclusive price of $1.5 billion.
The project hit the headlines in 2007 when it was announced the
contract had fallen behind schedule and the dockyard would be unable
to meet the 2008 delivery deadline.
The date of completion was pushed back to 2010. No one knows exactly
what went wrong. The official story is that the original contract
drastically underestimated both the time needed to modernise the
ship's systems and the cost of upgrading the vessel as a whole.
If true, that would neatly explain away the cause of the delay and
the extra cost. But it does not explain why it took so long for
anyone to realise that the original terms were so hopelessly
unrealistic.
Some experts say the contract was at risk as early as 2004, and most
of the blame was laid on the Sevmash shipyard director general, who
mysteriously retired - reportedly over the Gorshkov - in 2007.
Adding to the intrigue, rumours started to circulate that the
Russian defence ministry intended to buy back the ship and aircraft
and induct them into the Russian Navy.
In early March 2008, Russia and India were reported to have reached
agreement on completing the ship's modernisation. Talks are
currently under way between the two countries on final deadlines and
an ultimate contract price, and the Indian Navy chief, Admiral
Sureesh Mehta, recently visited Russia to negotiate terms.
In another hopeful sign, the admiral said that the first of the
deck-based MiG-29K fighters for the Vikramaditya is expected to
arrive in India in May this year.
But Mehta's visit has cast no fresh light on the affair.
With no full information available on details of the project, it
might be of interest to take a look at the ship itself and the plans
for retrofitting.
The Gorshkov was laid down in 1978 in Nikolayev as Project 1143.4.
It is a Kiev-class heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser, a unique hybrid
of aircraft carrier and missile-carrying cruiser developed by the
Soviet Navy defence sector.
Each Project 1143 vessel was to be equipped with an air wing
consisting of submarine-chasing Ka-25 helicopters and Yak-36
(Yak-38) VTOL (vertical takeoff/landing) aircraft. The exact purpose
of these planes is unclear to this day - experts and history buffs
categorise them either as fighters or assault planes. But as
fighters the British Sea Harrier, the MiG-23, Phantom or similar
aircraft of the same class outperform them. As assault aircraft,
they were inferior to practically any strike plane of the leading
countries at that time.
The main weapons of the Project 1143 vessels were their anti-ship
missiles. The eight missiles each on the Kiev, Minsk, and
Novorossiisk, and 12 missiles on the Baku (the future Admiral
Gorshkov) were a formidable force which, combined with other weapons
of a squadron, were expected to destroy the Soviet Navy's main
opponent - American aircraft carriers.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the Soviet Navy took delivery of four such
ships, which became the largest combat units in the force. The
Admiral Gorshkov had a full-load displacement of over 50,000 tonnes,
only outdone by the Admiral Kuznetsov with a weight approaching, or
according to some sources exceeding, 60,000 tonnes.
Fourth in the series, the Gorshkov took the longest to build - it
was launched in 1982 and commissioned in 1987. That year the ship
joined the Northern Fleet after making the only long-distance cruise
in its career.
The collapse of the Soviet Union upset plans to retrofit the carrier
to take the latest Yak-141 VTOL aircraft. In 1992, the Gorshkov was
put in for repairs that were never completed.
The converted Admiral Gorshkov will resemble a slightly downscaled
Admiral Kuznetsov. The vessel will be stripped of its anti-ship
missiles, and a ski-jump ramp will be fitted on the bow. New
anti-aircraft systems and electronic countermeasures will also be
added. As part of the Indian Navy, it will be used in coordination
with the latest Russian-built Project 11356 stealth frigates.
As an element of the Indian Navy, the Russian ship will replace the
aircraft carrier Viraat, formerly the Hermes, built in 1959 and
bought from Britain in 1985. By the time the Admiral Gorshkov takes
over in 2010, the Viraat will have served a total of 51 years. The
Admiral Gorshkov was built in 1987. One wonders how it would fare in
2038?
(Ilya Kramnik is a military columnist for Russia's RIA Novosti news
agency. The opinions expressed are the author's and do not
necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.)
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