Ending their haggling, India and Russia have finalised a "mutually acceptable" price for Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier, its exporter has said, claiming that the Indian navy would practically get a "totally new, state-of-the-art" ship that is seaworthy for 30 years.
The navy has significantly expanded its deployment in the Indian Ocean Region deploying a plethora of warships and submarines to create pressure points on China as the maritime space around the Malacca Strait is very critical for its supply chain through sea routes.
The Indian Navy and other stakeholders in the maritime domain are playing a pro-active role to avoid a recurrence of 26/11 type terror attacks, President Pratibha Patil said on Wednesday.
Following India's announcement, Russia too has confirmed that problems relating to the price of the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov have been sorted out, and that the aircraft will be delivered to India in a good shape.
Khanderi is the second of the Navy's six Kalvari-class submarines built in India. It is a diesel-electric attack submarine which is designed by French naval defence and energy company DCNS which is being manufactured at Mazagon Dock in Mumbai.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday left for a three-day visit to Russia during which the two sides are expected to sign a framework agreement on civil nuclear cooperation and three pacts in the field of defence.Dr Singh, who will be undertaking his sixth visit to Russia since 2004, said he will also meet Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, under whose presidency the annual dialogue was set up.
Diplomat Madhuri Gupta, arrested on charges of spying for Pakistan, joins a list of several top Indian officials accused of leaking sensitive information or falling into honey trap in the past few decades.
No new deal on the modernisation of the Kiev class aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov will be signed during Defence Minister A K Antony's three-day Russia visit beginning Tuesday, the Indian envoy in Moscow said.
Giving a fillip to their ties, India and Russia today signed 19 pacts, including three in civil nuclear field and one for purchase of 29 MiG-29 fighters besides inking the revised agreement on Gorshkov aircraft carrier, a deal that was stuck for three years over price.
Vice Admiral Nirmal Kumar Verma, who once commanded India's sole aircraft carrier INS Viraat, on Monday took over as the new Navy chief.
Indian ranks fifth in the world according to a report that ranks the strength of 20 countries according to weaponry, including tanks, aircraft, helicopters and submarines.
India has already purchased 16 MiG-29K aircraft from Russia for $536 million. The total deal, including the warship, was for $1.5 billion in 2004.
"Before entering into any contract, the government will go through all details. We will assess the criticism, including that of CAG, on the issue. At present, the Gorshkov price escalation is in negotiation stage. Nothing has been finalised," Defence Minister A K Antony said during Question Hour.
The INS Shivalik, now completing sea trials, is a world-class frigate built at Indian prices.
The Kiev-class warship, for which India signed a contract with Russia in 2004 for $974 million, was originally scheduled for delivery in 2008.
"New Delhi has agreed to allocate extra funds for the carrier which would be delivered to the Indian Navy in 2012, four years behind schedule," Russian officials said following what they said "successful" negotiations to break the prolonged deadlock between the two sides over multi-billion dollar cost escalation.
Freshly painted in grey, the huge but sleek vessel proudly displaying its new name Vikramaditya in Hindi and English was shown by NTV channel carefully being propelled into the wet dock of the Severodvinsk-based Sevmash Shipyard, where the refit will be continued pending the final price negotiations.
The country's top rocket scientist V K Saraswat and Dipankar Banerjee, credited with developing critical materials for aircraft carriers, were among scientists decorated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Technology Day on Monday. Both received the 2007 Technology Leadership Award. The top-most defence research award was bagged by the Aeronautical Defence Agency, Bangalore for carrying out test firing of close combat air-to-air missiles in LCAs.
China on Friday hiked its defence budget to $209 billion, maintaining a single-digit growth for the sixth consecutive year with a 6.8 per cent increase in 2021.
India has paid another staggering US $ 102 million to Russia, to speed up refit work on the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, pending a final agreement on a huge price hike of almost USD 2 billion demanded by Moscow.
"Targeting ships at high seas is not an easy task or as simple as land warfare," Admiral Verma told media persons on the sidelines of a seminar on aircraft carriers organised by the National Maritime Foundation in New Delhi.
The Indian Navy will formally induct the Russian-made MiG-29K naval fighter jets for deployment on Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier on February 19 in Goa.
A democracy can only thrive when there is real unity based on common identity. India is still more than 85 percent Hindu and unless there is renaissance in Hindu society and peace between Hindus and Muslims, India cannot exploit its creative and intellectual strengths.
The Comptroller and Auditor General report for 2008, released in New Delhi, also questioned the prudence of the Ministry in buying the second-hand Russian warship, which now comes at 'half its life-span and about "60 per cent more expensive' than a new aircraft carrier.
In another bid to iron out differences over cost escalation of weapons systems, including the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, Indian and Russian defence officials open crucial talks next week.
With the release of additional funds last week, India has now paid a total of $602 million for Admiral Gorshkov, purchased in 2004 for $964 million and currently undergoing repair and refit at Sevmash shipyard in north Russia, a Defence Ministry official said in New Delhi on Thursday.
Russia's Sevmash shipyard, currently retrofitting aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, on Tuesday said the warship would be ready for transfer to the Indian Navy in 2012 though the price escalation issue is yet to be resolved. Announcing its readiness to begin sea trials for the carrier in 2011, the shipyard officials said these could be carried "provided all the financial issues are resolved."
Visakhapatnam is buzzing with excitement as residents have been thronging every available vantage point, parks and footpaths to witness the ongoing rehearsals for the international fleet review.
Satellite imagery, passed to The Daily Telegraph, reportedly shows that a substantial harbour has been built, which could house a score of nuclear ballistic missile submarines and a host of aircraft carriers. The daily reported that one photograph shows China's latest 094 nuclear submarine at the base just a few hundred miles from its neighbours. Other images show numerous warships moored to long jetties and a network of underground tunnels at the Sanya base at Hainan Island.
That investment in the Tejas programme is rooted in the navy's plan to operate both light and medium fighters off its aircraft carriers. The Naval LCA will supplement the heavier Russian MiG-29K, which has already been ordered from Russia.
'Cooperation at sea involves not just ships going out together and carrying out exercises over a couple of days, but understanding the whys and the wherefores,' points out Vice Admiral Premvir Das (retd).
India and Russia on Monday decided to extend the tenure of an inter-governmental commission for military cooperation by another 10 years to 2020. The two sides inched closer to resolving the Gorshkov aircraft carrier price and T-90 tanks technology transfer issues. New Delhi and Moscow also decided to form an apex body headed by the defence secretaries of the two countries to coordinate the operation of several working groups for military cooperation.
India's first aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, decommissioned by the Navy over a decade ago, is to be put to commercial use like restaurants and convention centres. INS Vikrant, now only a museum, is to have certain value additions to make it financially viable.
A source in the Russian military-industrial complex told Russian information agency RBC that Russia and India are now reaching an agreement on changing the conditions of the 2004 contract for the carrier's overhaul, the paper said.
While officials of the two allies offered few details on Wednesday about what was decided or even discussed at the meeting -- including any new strategies, tactics, weapons or troop deployment -- the star-studded list of participants and an extreme secrecy surrounding the talks, New York Times said the talks underscored how gravely the two nations regarded the growing militant threat.
C2C DB Systems is tightly integrated into India's warship production eco-system.
KCNA said the new type of surface-to-ship cruise missile is designed to hit 'any enemy group of battleships' that threatened the country.
In a boost to the sagging defence relationship between India and Russia, the two nations on Friday signed a contract for supply of 80 MI-17V-5 medium lift helicopters for the Indian Air Force. Valued at $1 billion, the agreement between the two sides comes at a time when New Delhi and Moscow are squabbling over several defence related deals signed earlier.
The French armed forces conducted second air raid against Daesh (IS) in Raqqa in 24 hours.
A woman, whose husband went missing from aircraft carrier INS Viraat around ten years ago, has moved the Bombay High Court challenging the Navy declaring her husband a 'deserter'. According to petitioner Pratibha Raghuram, she was evicted from her house in Navy Nagar in Mumbai in December 1998, barely one month after her husband Raghuram went missing from INS Viraat, which was docked in Goa.
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