Nuclear-compatible Cold War heli-cruiser surfaces in Alang

The first flat deck Soviet warship when she was commissioned into the Red Banner Fleet in 1967, the Moskva was designed to sweep the seas of NATO missile submarines. This cruiser once carried 18 anti-submarine ballistic missiles, each tipped with a 15 kilo-ton nuclear depth bomb, the power of the Hiroshima device. Fired into the sea from its twin launchers, the depth bombs could instantly vaporise enemy submarines.

All that is history now. Built for an Armageddon that never came, the warship roughly the size of the decommissioned Vikrant, now sits forlornly onAlang8217;s muddy coast. Its huge 265-foot flight deck which reverberated to the roar of its 18 Kamov Ka-28 Helix anti-submarine helicopters is now silent.

Only its military grey paint and radar scaffolding distinguish it from the ragged hulks of merchant ships around. This powerful cruiser-helicopter carrier hybrid, was demilitarised by the Russians before the sale. Missile launchers, electronics, machinery, engines and blue prints, in short anything which could be re-used, has been ripped out.

Towed after a ninety-day journey from Sevastopol on the Black Sea, the cruiser arrived at Alang in December. After its final journey of a few thousand miles, the ship now patiently awaits a date with destiny. In the next few weeks, tide permitting, the ship will be dragged up the beach with power winches and hundreds of labourers will set on it with gas torches.Ships like the Moskva will probably never be built again. The end of the Cold War has spelt finis to such huge mission-specific ships.

However, even Alang8217;shardy scrap dealers are unwilling to touch aircraft carriers. An NRI buyer who purchased the decommissioned US aircraft carrier Bennington in 1995, went bankrupt with losses of over Rs 4 crore.

So when the 60,000-tonne Russian Admiral Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier Varyag was put on the block, nobody from Alang was particularly interested.8220;It8217;s like playing Russian roulette,8221; explains Parduman Goyal, who8217;s cut up nearly a dozen warships including the Indian Navy8217;s Delhi and the Mysore. 8220;Unlike merchant ships, there8217;s no way of telling a warship8217;s exact weight, also there8217;s no guaranteeing how much metal can be recovered.8221;

While it takes weeks to cut up a merchant vessel, workmen could take years to dismantle a huge warship. Cutting up the Bennington took two years and the metal recovered from it was found too thick to be re-rolled. But the incentive lies in the warship8217;s non-ferrous metals like brass and copper.

8220;Those launchers mean a few tonnes of aluminium,8221; says Goyal pointing at theKrivak8217;s huge missile containers.