Gorshkov: Costlier

New Delhi, Nov. 26: India’s single-biggest defence deal with traditional supplier Russia is in danger of running aground.

Indian and Russian officials will, however, resume talks this week to salvage it after Moscow demanded that Delhi pay up more than twice the amount it had contracted for the aircraft carrier, the Admiral Gorshkov.

The Russian demand was raised despite an upset schedule in refitting the carrier and in spite of increasing competition that Russia is facing from the US, Israel and western countries to supply military hardware to India. Nearly 70 per cent of military equipment used by India is of Russian or Soviet origin.

The tardy progress on the Gorshkov has combined with suspicions over a nearly $600-million deal-in-the-works for 197 army helicopters to jeopardise big-ticket military acquisitions.

Eurocopter had claimed it was the winner for the army order in a stiff competition with Bell but questions have been raised about the process of selection. A defence ministry source said: “All procedures will be gone through before we order for re-tendering.”

The re-negotiations on the Gorshkov and the doubts on the chopper deal overshadow efforts to hasten military acquisitions. Six firms from Russia, the US and Europe are preparing to formally bid for an Indian Air Force order of 126 aircraft — possibly the single-biggest military order in the world today — for which the government invited proposals.

Earlier this year, defence minister A.K. Antony asked for re-opening a competition for heavy-calibre artillery after Bofors outperformed its competitors in the trials.

The Gorshkov demand was raised last week, nearly four years after the vessel — to be re-christened the INS Vikramaditya — was contracted for $974 million. The Russians have now demanded $1.2 billion, defence ministry sources said today.

The carrier was contracted in a package deal that includes 18 MiG-29K fighter aircraft that would be based on the ship, Kamov 27 Helix A and Kamov 31 Helix B anti-submarine helicopters. The deal signed in January 2004 was for $1.5 billion.

The Russian demand comes after work on retrofitting the Gorshkov was practically halted at the Sevmash shipyard in Russia.

The 44,000-tonne Gorshkov was slated for delivery in 2008 — an impossibility now — to replace the Indian Navy’s ageing and only carrier, the INS Viraat. When negotiations for the Gorshkov began in 1994, Moscow claimed it was offering the carrier to the navy for the price of its refit.

Right now, the US is preparing to decommission its oldest carrier, the Kitty Hawk. But navy headquarters sources say there is no move to negotiate for the carrier that is of a different class.

India is building its own carrier — called an air defence ship — with Italian help in Kochi. But an optimistic schedule would see it commissioned only in 2012.