Ground this Admiral

The Hon8217;ble Defence Minister recently said that the deal for procuring the Admiral Gorshkov is now in the final stages. Negotiations be...

The Hon8217;ble Defence Minister recently said that the deal for procuring the Admiral Gorshkov is now in the final stages. Negotiations between India and Russia began in 1994 for the sale of Admiral Gorshkov, which has been inactive since 1991, that is over 11 years. The ship had a major fire in 1985. Although she is reported to have joined the fleet after refit, she has hardly been operational See box. George Fernandes had earlier announced on January 11, 1999, that the agreement had reached the stage of sale. This deal has, from the beginning, reeked and is, perhaps, a fitting follow-up to the petrol pump scam!

Admiral Gorshkov is a 273-meter long Krechyet class aircraft carrier that supports strategic missile submarines, surface ships and naval aircraft of the Russian fleet. This ship has been classified as a heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser. It is of over 25 years vintage, and survived a major fire in 1985. With a displacement of 45,000 tonnes, it is unsuitable for berthing in any of the Indian harbours. The aircraft carrier would have to be taken to Singapore even to settle a repair in its toilet!

A Russian tragedy?
Samar Halarnkar

After eight years of haggling, India is close to finalising a deal to buy a former Soviet carrier, the Admiral Gorshkov, named after a Soviet admiral. Ahead of that decision, naval chief Admiral Madhvendra Singh visited the rusting ship at its resting place in Severodvinsk, Russia. The Navy8217;s first carrier, the Vikrant, was scrapped in 1997. The sole carrier today, the 1950s-vintage Viraat, is good for another eight years after an extensive refit. The navy eventually needs three carriers, but many former naval chiefs are virulently opposed to the Gorshkov. A reality check:

She had three sisters8230;
The Gorshkov had three sisters, from a group of ships8212;part aircraft carrier, part cruiser8212;called the Kiev class, built at the height of the Cold War. The Kiev is now in the northern Chinese port of Qinhuangdao, being readied to star in a Rs 300 crore military theme park. The Minsk, further south in Shenzen, became a theme park in 2000. The Novorossiysk became scrap in South Korea in 1997.

8230; And a cousin in the Ukraine
In the naval shipyard of Dalian is a partially built, larger cousin of the Gorshkov. The Varyag8212;it passed into Ukranian hands after the USSR crumbled8212;could well become the first aircraft carrier of the People8217;s Liberation Army Navy. It could as well become a casino, as it was bought by an unknown Macau firm for Rs 100 crore.

The offer we couldn8217;t refuse
Ravaged by a fire in 1985, three years before entering Soviet service, the 44,000-tonne Gorshkov was inactive for 11 years before being offered to India. The price: Rs 1,000 crore, about 10 times the sum we paid the British for the Viraat. When the government dithered, it was offered 8216;8216;free8217;8217;, a Russian masterstroke.

Reading the fine print
All India has to do, say the Russians, is pay for the cost of getting the Gorshkov back on her feet, add modern weapons systems, and maybe two squadrons of MiG-29 fighters. These miscellaneous items add upto Rs 10,000 crore or thereabouts. And the ship will be with you in three years.

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What could Rs 10,000 crore buy?
About eight ultra-modern destroyers of the Delhi class, the most modern, powerful ship that the navy has today. Perhaps two smaller carriers, built at Kochi or by the Spaniards who8217;ve made an offer? Pay for the Navy8217;s entire budget for at least two years.

A ship without a port
Even if the Gorshkov makes it, the navy will struggle to find a home port. It8217;s too big for Mumbai. The new naval port of Karwar won8217;t be ready for seven years. It could put in at Kochi or in the east, but it8217;s meant to menace Pakistan.

Coming full circle
Many naval hands insist India must learn to build its own carrier. The Chinese have in the past bought a defunct Australian carrier, Melbourne, to learn all about it. They8217;ve also reportedly bought the engineering blueprints for the Kiev class, and now the Varyag. All this was under the influence of former PLAN commander Liu Huaqing. His idol: Admiral Gorshkov.

Admiral Gorshkov will be extensively modified to accommodate conventional take-off and landing helicopters possibly Su-27K Flanker-D or the smaller MiG-29K Fulcrum-D. The refit will include the addition of a bow ski-jump take-off ramp, and removal of the missile launchers to make room for the ramp. It requires additional modifications to suit the Indian manning patterns and living styles. The refit may take up to four years.

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The costs vary but are expected to be around 600 million Rs 3,000 crore. The Russians have tied the deal of the carrier to the sale of 20 MiG-29K aircraft, which is yet unproven in the Russian Air Force. The cost of the 20 MiG-29K is about 1 to 1.5 Rs 5,000-7,000 crore. Additionally, there would be costs for spares, ammunition etc. India would thus have to shell out well over Rs 10,000 crore for this much-touted 8216;8216;gift8217;8217;.

The right approach would be to build an aircraft carrier which is suitable to the needs of the Indian Navy and appropriate for operating under Indian conditions. The Indian Navy basically needs an aircraft carrier for fleet air defence, and a limited strike capability. It could even be in collaboration with any other country that is willing to co-operate. Indian dockyards too have the capability to build an aircraft carrier for limited strike capability.

The cost would be in the range of about Rs 3,000 crore with India developing the capability to design future requirements of the carriers. The timeframe would be a year or two more.

However, given Russian time overruns in the case of the Sukhoi aircraft, it is anybody8217;s guess whether they would keep to the time schedule for Admiral Gorshkov. When Y B Chavan was the Defence Minister, he formed a committee to scrutinise the manufacture of MiG-21 aircraft in India to overcome any criticism. In the case of the aircraft carrier too, it is not too late for the government to form a task force comprising service personnel and representatives of the National Security Advisory Board to examine this project within a short time of a month or so before taking a final view.

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Instead of solving a problem, Admiral Gorshkov may well create many more for India and the Indian Navy, ultimately resulting in stalling Parliamentary proceedings and calling for the Defence Minister8217;s resignation again!