Gorschkov at sea

When the Soviet government collapsed, the body entrusted with representing Moscow in negotiating foreign sales 8212; the General Engineering Department 8212; was also wound up, to be replaced by the Rosboron Russian Defence Export. Contracts are signed between the GoI MoD and Rosboron Export, the holding-cum-trading company which creams off 15 per cent of the contract price between the buyer and the actual seller, otherwise called the Original Equipment Manufacturer OEM. On a few occasions when Indian officers have met the OEM representatives, tales of exorbitant add-on costs have emerged, as well as the inability of OEMs to give the customer a fair deal without the rapacious intervention of Rosboron. In the murky world of defence deals, the relationship between Rosboron and senior leaders in the Kremlin is discussed as hugely important bits of strategic information to be exploited in deal-making.

Today, the yard where the Vikramaditya/Gorschkov is being refitted 8212; the Severomash in Severodvinsk 8212; claims that the cost of refitting the Gorschkov has escalated from 700 million agreed price to about 1.3 billion. But that is not the real story. Any flat buyer who has been cheated by a builder will be familiar with this one. After paying 50 per cent of the flat price, the owner goes to see his flat, sees nothing on the ground, and is told that unless he pays 75 per cent of costs and a 50 per cent escalation, the flat construction won8217;t even start. The Gorschkov story is one such episode. The great mystery, of course, is whether the managers of Severomash, normally an inoffensive, hard-working lot in a remote shipyard, are doing this scam entirely on their own, or it is encouraged and abetted from Moscow.

When the Gorschkov refit started, Severodvnsk was on the verge of collapse, with the threat of thousands of workers being laid off. Today, the yard is thriving, outwardly at least. The buildings have been renovated, the employees have new cars, there are spanking new computers and office systems, but practically no work going on, on our aircraft carrier. The yard however is very busy. The new-generation Russian Nuclear Submarine, the Boreii class, languishing under construction for eight long years, has suddenly been completed. Two more Boreii class are being built 8212; all to join the Far East Fleet in Kamchatka, to help Russia flex its new-found muscle. The yard is also churning out miles of pipelines to take Siberian gas and oil to new buyers, at 100 a barrel. When the Gorschkov deal was signed, the oil price was 47 and Russia8217;s GDP was 300 billion. Now it stands at 1.5 trillion. What has not changed is the camaraderie between the Indian naval officers and their Russian colleagues in the yard. Truth they say always comes out with vodka. 8220;You must be daft,8221; say the Russians, 8220;if you thought you were getting a free aircraft carrier.8221;

We Indians have a few grim choices before us. The only aircraft the Gorschkov can accommodate, the Mig-29Ks, have been paid for, so no smart sidestepping is possible to acquire an old American carrier, for instance. But there are many purchases from Russia in the offing, including the army8217;s MBT, the Akula, the power reactors for Kudamkulam and the AWACS. There are many more yet to be negotiated, among them the mother of all deals 8212; the Multi Role Combat Aircraft. Russia has much to lose in commercial terms by standing us up, but may make up in sales of high-tech weapons to a cash rich China.

In the final analysis, therefore, these weapons sales on such a large scale are part of the new political rearrangement going on in the world. There are many areas where only the Russians have stood by us, but if a political rearrangement is going on, we must start by looking for other collaborative ventures and why the Russians are getting away with no offsets? Only the old-timers will remember that we went to the Soviets, in the first place, in 1965, when the British Admiralty 8212; to whom we looked up for so much 8212; turned us down flat on a request for modern submarines. The Gorschkov deal will have to be re-negotiated, but there is little doubt that we must 8212; as the navy chief had suggested 8212; take a relook at where we are going, in relation to the US , the EU, Russia and Israel.

Lastly, we are repeating history and that is unforgivable. We always knew that the three strategic projects 8212; the Indian nuclear submarine, the light combat aircraft and the main battle tank would decide our strategic independence. In all three areas we are displaying an inward-looking, autarchic, failed India image when commercial India is buying up US technological companies and creating multinational giants. Government science occasionally does deliver, like ISRO does. But if we have to dismantle our rent-seeking PSUs and create new JVs that can sell to the world instead of being the world8217;s largest arms buyer, let the government appoint a commission, like it did the Tata commission for aviation in the sixties, to achieve some semblance of strategic autonomy.

The writer is a retired rear admiral

rajamenonvsnl.com