Indian Military Delegation Pays Visit to Sevmash Shipyard

Visit of Indian military delegation headed by Vice Admiral Nadella Kumar to Sevmash shipyard is coming to its end. Indian partners started the visit with inspection of the Project 11430 aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya.

Being accompanied by Sevmash’s director general Andrei Diachkov, foreign military production managers Sergei Novoselov and Georgy Zhukov, representatives of United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), Rosoboronexport, and Nevskoye Design Bureau, Mr. Kumar visited the ship’s conning room, flag bridge, aircraft command station, aircraft ammunition bilge, and hangar. He inspected with interest crew quarters, commanding officer’s cabin, cook room, and officers’ mess rooms.

Indian military officials held several working meetings with directors of USC and Sevmash, listened reports of colleagues observing the works on the carrier, and met with their families residing in Severodvinsk.

The contract for modernization of aircraft-carrying cruiser Admiral Gorshkov (renamed into INS Vikramaditya) for Indian Navy was tied in 2004. It became the largest export contract in Russian-Indian military technical cooperation. Initially, modernization was evaluated as $616 mln, and the ship was planned to join Indian Navy in 2008. However, due to increased scope of works, the ship’s delivery date was postponed for 2012.

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Shipbuilding Tribune Staff, March 23, 2012; Image: sevmash