DTN News: India - Aircraft Carrier / The Navy Of Any Great Power ... Has The Dream To Have One Or More Aircraft Carriers
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - January 10, 2009: India's sole aircraft carrier, the 29,000 ton INS Viraat, is in the midst of a 16 months visit to a shipyard, where it is getting maintenance and upgrades. The work will be interrupted briefly this year so that the Viraat can celebrate fifty years of service.
INS Viraat (Sanskrit "Giant" ) (R22) is a Centaur-class aircraft carrier currently in service with the Indian Navy. INS Viraat is the flagship of the Indian Navy.
INS Viraat (Sanskrit "Giant" ) (R22) is a Centaur-class aircraft carrier currently in service with the Indian Navy. INS Viraat is the flagship of the Indian Navy.
The Viraat began life in 1959 as the HMS Hermes, and served in the Royal Navy for 26 years. In 1986 the Hermes was purchased by India and recommissioned as INS Veraat. It underwent several upgrades until it got a major (21 month) refurbishment, that included a ski jump flight deck for its Harrier vertical-take-off jets. The Veraat was to have been joined in 2010 by the refurbished Russian carrier, the 44,000 ton Gorshkov (as the INS Vikramaditya). Under this plan, the INS Viraat was to be retired in 2012, after 53 years service.
But now the INS Viraat is getting its engine and hull refurbished, and its electronics upgraded, so that it can serve for up to ten years more. That would mean sixty years in service. Such long service is becoming more common for warships and combat aircraft (like the B-52, Tu-142 and P-3). This is all possible because of advances in engineering and equipment design over the past half century. There are now more reliable techniques and sensors for evaluating the condition of old ships and aircraft. There are new materials and equipment to replace the older stuff and keep the old warriors serving for decade after decade.
Meanwhile, India has agreed to pay more money, and wait longer, to complete the delayed refurbishment of the Russian aircraft carrier Gorshkov. The Russians not only demanded more money, but also admitted that a labor shortage would delay delivery until 2012. The Russians have also admitted that the project also suffers from shoddy workmanship. The new deal will cost $2.5 billion. This includes the purchase of the Gorshkov, and Russian shipyards performing repairs, modifications and upgrades. Another $800 milliom is to be spent on aircraft, weapons and equipment. Building a Gorshkov type carrier today would cost about $4 billion, and take several years more. India is building another carrier, from scratch, but that 37,000 ton vessel won't be ready until 2015.
The Admiral Gorshkov entered service in 1987, but was inactivated in 1996 (too expensive to operate on a post Cold War budget). The Indian deal was made in 2004, and the carrier was to be ready by 2008. But two years ago reports, began coming out of Russia that the shipyard doing the work, Sevmash, had seriously miscalculated the cost of the project. The revised costs were more like $1.1 billion for the $700 million refurb. The situation proceeded to get worse, with Sevmash reporting ever increasing costs to refurbish the carrier.
The Indians were not happy, and at first insisted that the Russian government (which owns many of the entities involved) make good on the original deal. India sent its own team of technical experts to Russia, and their report apparently confirmed what the Russians reported, about shipyard officials low-balling the cost of the work needed. This is a common tactic for firms building weapons for their own country. It gets more complicated when you try to pull that sort of thing on a foreign customer. The Russian government will cover some of the overrun cost. The Sevmash managers who negotiated the low bid are being prosecuted.
Once refurbished, the Gorshkov, renamed INS Vikramaditya, should be good for about 30 years of service. That's because, after the refit, 70 percent of the ships equipment will be new, and the rest refurbished.
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News, contact: dtnnews@ymail.com
© Copyright (c) DTN News Defense-Technology News
The rugged and agile jet earned a reputation as a versatile and effective short-range interceptor with low operating costs and excellent performance. Just like the Kalashnikov AK-47 automatic rifle - another robust and reliable weapon that epitomized Soviet power - the MiG-21 holds a unique place in military history.
"It was one of the best fighters ever, very reliable, and a real challenge to all pilots who fought against it," said David Ivry, a former chief of the Israeli Air Force who battled MiG-21s as a squadron leader in the 1967 Six-Day War and as a commander in the 1973 and 1982 wars.
MiGs derived their name from the initials of their designers, Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich. Codenamed Fishbed by NATO, the MiG-21 gained fame during the Vietnam War, where it was used by the North Vietnamese air force to intercept American bombers.
Although heavily outnumbered, the small Fishbeds could evade radar and ambush U.S. formations with hit-and-run attacks in which many U.S. jets, including top-of-the line F-4 Phantoms, were downed or forced to abort their missions.
"The MiG-21 was lighter and more agile than the Phantom, which gave it a better chance to survive in a dogfight," wrote Russian aviation historian Vladimir Babich, who analyzed the MiG's performance in Vietnam.
The U.S. Air Force first gained vital insight into the Mig-21s capabilities after a defecting Iraqi pilot brought one to Israel in 1966. The Israelis also exploited their findings during the 1967 Six-Day war, when their surprise air strikes destroyed the Arab air forces on the ground.
Although the plane's performance was enhanced over the years, designers never succeeded in overcoming the limited fuel capacity, stemming from the design's small size. Another weakness was thick windshield framing that reduced the pilot's forward visibility, a serious problem during aerial combat.
Still, more than 10,000 MiG-21s were built, making it the most widely produced jet fighter ever built.
The delta-winged Mach 2 interceptor - Mach 2 is double the speed of sound - was widely exported and became the backbone of about 50 air forces in Europe, Africa and Asia. It was used in a dozen armed conflicts in the past 30 years, more than any other fighter in history.
In the 1970s, the U.S. introduced two jets which outperformed the MiG-21 - the new F-15 Eagles and F-16 Fighting Falcons. The Soviets countered with MiG-29s and Sukhoi-27s. By the 1980s the aging Fishbeds were relegated to second-line duties, like reconnaissance.
Russia has long since retired the MiG-21, but it remains operational with numerous air forces around the world.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, the USSR's former East European allies joined NATO, bringing more than 200 of their aging MiG-21s into the Western alliance.
Most have since been replaced, but the old warhorse soldiers on in NATO members Romania and Bulgaria, and in Croatia, scheduled to join the alliance in 2009. All three plan to retire the Fishbed over the next three or four years.
Alen Warnes, editor of Air Forces Monthly, a specialized British publication, noted that the MiG-21 is the last fighter from the 1950s to remain operational and that no other fighter has achieved such longevity.
"No aircraft has influenced military aviation in post-World War II Europe more than the MiG-21," Warnes said.
