Indian Navy to Take Over Aircraft Carrier INS Vikramaditya in December

Aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya (former Russian aircraft-carrying cruiser Admiral Gorshkov) will be delivered to Indian Navy on Dec 4, 2012, reports ITAR-TASS referring to a source in defense industry.

“The carrier’s sea trials will start on May 29, and in accordance with the contract terms the ship will be handed over to India on December 4“, said the source.

As was reported earlier, sea trials of the carrier will take place in the Barents Sea within two or three weeks. Then will come 3-months of air wing tests.

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 7, 2012