All news

Vikramaditya to be handed over to India mid 2013 – shipbuilding company official

The work will be done at the Baltic shipbuilding plant, which had manufactured the boilers for the aircraft carrier

KALININGRAD, November 10 (Itar-Tass) —— The Vikramaditya aircraft carrier (formerly Russia’s The Admiral Gorshkov) will be handed over to India in the middle of next year, the vice-president of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, Sergei Forafonov, told the media in Kaliningrad. He took part in the ceremony of the transfer to the Indian Navy of another frigate (The Tarkash), build at the Baltic shipyards Yantar.

“The negotiations with the Indian side are practically over. The Vikramaditya aircraft carrier will be handed over to the customer in the middle of 2013 after the insulation of boilers has been replaced,” Forafonov said.

He recalled that the insulation of the aircraft carrier’s boilers failed during sea trials.

“It was not designers’ mistake. The insulation materials were used at the request of the Indian side. The partners had not taken into account the factor of vibration and the hull’s deformation while the ship is on the move,” Forafonov said. “As a result, we have the result that we have.”

Forafonov said the boilers would be covered with a different sort of insulation. The Indian partners agreed with that and put their signatures to the specifications of the new coating.

The work will be done at the Baltic shipbuilding plant, which had manufactured the boilers for the aircraft carrier.

“Next year the Vikramaditya will be fully restored and handed over to the Indian side,” Forafonov said, adding that that might happen in June 2013.