INS Vikramaditya - Status

Status

Russia was scheduled to hand over the INS Vikramaditya to India on Dec 4, 2012, reports RIA Novosti referring to Sergei Novoselov, deputy director of Sevmash shipyard for international military cooperation. Sea trials are scheduled to begin on May 29, 2012.

All reconfiguration work is being completed at Severodvinsk, Russia; however it has been delayed by three years due to underestimation of the amount of cabling needed. An expert level discussion on technical and financial matters has been held between India and Russia to sort out the issues. The MiG-29K entered operational service with India in February 2010. A compromise was finalised and India will pay an extra undisclosed amount. Russia will install new systems instead of repairing the old ones and the carrier will be delivered in 2011. It will then begin an 18-month sea trial before it is commissioned into the Indian Navy in 2012.

On 1 June 2010, the Times of India reported a naval officer saying: "With India earlier this year agreeing to the revised refit cost of $2.33 billion for Gorshkov, after three years of bitter wrangling since the earlier agreement inked in January 2004 had earmarked only $974 million for it, Russia has appointed a high-level apex committee to oversee the work on the carrier." The ship is likely to go for harbour trials by early 2011 to ensure it can be handed over to India by December 2012 or so.

Dock trials began on March 1, 2011. The focus of these trials was on the main power generation units and the radio-electronic armament systems, manufactured in India.

Indian Navy personnel began training on INS Vikramaditya in April, 2011.

On April 19, 2012, it was announced that all internal systems were functioning, and the ship was entirely self-contained. Measurement of the ship's magnetic field and centre of gravity will be performed before sea trials begin.

The current stage began with repair and modernization of the aircraft carrier. The ship was unmoored from the outfitting quay wall and moved to the wiping station. For 20 days, the magnetic field of the aircraft would be measured. This procedure is essential for all naval ships and for their protection against mine-and-torpedo weapons reacting to a ship's magnetic field. According to reports from the commissioning manager Igor Leonov, the aircraft carrier has become entirely self-contained: all internal systems and mechanisms, the ship’s propulsion system, galley, water supply system are operable and the ship’s board has been uploaded with the foodstuffs for 30 days, with the Russian crew constantly present on the carrier. The movement operation itself, according to Igor Leonov, passed with success although not without some difficulties as the shipyard’s water area is still covered with ice. Continuous work is being done on the aircraft carrier by up to 1100 workers, who get to the carrier by tugs.

The next important stage is a heeling test: the ship’s board will be uploaded with the weights of 360 tons, which are to be transferred from one side to another at a certain time. The ship’s heel is used for calculation of its center of gravity, and is very important for the estimation of stability. The sea trials for INS Vikramaditya began on June 8th 2012. The ship sailed out for crucial pre-delivery trials from the berth of the Sevmash shipyard in Russia’s northern city of Severodvinsk. The trials are scheduled for 120 days and handover of the ship to India is scheduled on December 4, 2012. These trials would include landing and take-off of fighter jets from the deck of the carrier.

On September 17, 2012, malfunctions were detected during trials. According to official report, seven out of eight steam boilers of the propulsion machinery were out of order. Because of this, the deadline of hand over this ship to Indian Navy has been postponed again until October 2013. Later investigation has determined that the cause for the engine failure was due to poor workmanship and supervision.