New Delhi, Sept 2: Just when it seemed fair weather sailing ahead, the indigenous Air Defence (AD) Ship programme has run into trouble and is once again within the environs of Raisina Hill. Cleared by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to be put up to the Cabinet Committee on Security, the file has been returned by the Department of Expenditure in the Ministry of Finance. And in that move there is believed to have been more than a helping hand from within the MoD, say sources.As first reported in The Indian Express on July 17, Defence Minister George Fernandes had cleared the long-pending proposal to construct an indigenous 32,000-ton aircraft carrier at the Naval Dockyard, Cochin.Sources said that even after the file was cleared by Fernandes, a note of dissent from within the MoD was added on to the file. The note is believed to have been authored by a Secretary-level officer, and virtually counters the logic for the AD Ship as enunciated by the Defence Minister.The Department of Expenditure isbelieved to have raised queries based on Ninth Plan funding, when according to current costs, the project is to be worth Rs 1,200 crore. The MoD's objections, on the other hand, are said to be focused on the role of aircraft carriers, sea versus shore-based aviation, and the large flotilla required. While the construction is to be the responsibility of the Navy, a number of Indian and foreign sources are likely to be participants in supplying the various systems and sub-systems. According to current projections, and with an immediate sanction, the AD Ship will only be ready for service in about a decade, ``leaving India with possibly three years without air cover in the oceans,'' said a source.While the initial design proposal was for a 24,000 ton ship, but with the decommissioning of INS Vikrant and likely security gaps when INS Viraat went in for modernisation, the project was upgraded to 32,000 tons. The AD Ship has been designed by the Directorate of Naval Design (DND), who raised the capacity ofthe project design ``keeping in mind the induction of the naval version of the Light Combat Aircraft when it became ready for induction,'' say naval sources.The genesis of the AD Ship proposal goes back 12 years when the design go-ahead was first accorded. ``All these years there has been one attitudinal stumbling block or the other, until it cleared first by the previous RM (Raksha Mantri), but then the UF government fell and with it went the project. The present RM has had it resurrected, but clearly there are other interests that are at play in this game, otherwise why would they not put up the returned file to him even after all these weeks,'' said a South Block official.
