New Delhi, Nov 14 (IANS) Defence Minister A.K. Antony will Saturday commission INS Vikramaditya at the Sevmash shipyard in Russia, a statement from the defence ministry said.
Indian Naval Ship Vikramaditya is the country's second aircraft carrier and the navy's biggest warship. The Sevmash shipyard is located in Severodvinsk.
Antony will leave Delhi Friday on a four-day visit to Russia, where he will, with his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoigu, co-chair the 13th meeting of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-MTC) in Moscow Monday.
Antony will be accompanied by a high-level delegation whose members include Chief of Naval Staff Admiral D.K. Joshi and Defence Secretary R.K. Mathur.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, apart from Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, will be among those present at the function to commission INS Vikramaditya.
INS Vikramaditya's commissioning is being described as "a game changer" in naval circles, and is expected to project India's maritime power far beyond its shores.
"INS Vikramaditya will bring transformational capabilities to the Indian Navy and will be a 'game changer'," a Navy official said.
"Vikramaditya will transform the face of the air arm fleet of the Indian Navy," he added.
The aircraft carrier is expected to reach India by early next year.
Vikramaditya is 284 meters in length, and with its beam of about 60 meters, it stretches to an area as large as three football fields. It has 22 decks and will have over 1,600 personnel on board.
"Associated with this is a mammoth logistics requirement - nearly a lakh of eggs, 20,000 litres of milk and 16 tonnes of rice per month. With her complete stock of provisions, the warship is capable of sustaining herself at sea for a period of about 45 days. The warship is capable of operations up to a range of over 7,000 nautical miles (13,000 km)," the official said.
The warship can carry over 30 aircraft, comprising an assortment of MiG 29K/Sea Harrier, Kamov 31, Kamov 28, Sea King, ALH-Dhruv and Chetak helicopters.
MiG 29K swing role fighter is the main offensive platform and provides a quantum jump for the Indian Navy's maritime strike capability, the official said.
"These fourth generation air superiority fighters provide a significant fillip to the Indian Navy with a range of over 700 nm (extendable to over 1,900 nm with inflight refueling) and an array of weapons including anti-ship missiles, beyond the visual range air-to-air missiles, guided bombs and rockets," the official said.
The warship is powered by eight new generation boilers to enable the 44,500-tonne "floating steel city" to cut through choppy seas with speeds of up to 30 knots.
The ship has provisions to generate power of 18 megawatts, enough to light a small town, and its plants can supply of 400 tonnes of fresh water every day.
Long range air surveillance radars and advanced electronic warfare suite makes the ship capable of maintaining "a surveillance bubble" of over 500 km around the ship.
The ship is equipped with state-of-the-art launch and recovery systems and computer-aided Action Information Organisation (CAIO) system, which is the heart of the operational network that infuses life into the combat systems onboard the ship.
Negotiations over acquiring Admiral Gorshkov (which was re-named INS Vikramaditya) started in 1994. A memorandum of understanding was signed in December 1998, and the deal was made January 2004.
However, soon after the repair and refit of the ship commenced in April 2004, it was realized that the work and equipment requiring replacement was significantly higher than originally estimated.
A protracted renegotiation for arriving at a mutually acceptable price for refurbishment was held and finally, in December 2009, the Indian and the Russian sides arrived at an agreement on the final price of delivery of the ship.
"It was agreed that the delivery of the ship would take place in 2012. Though the re-negotiated price was significantly higher than what was originally agreed upon, the fillip that the addition of Gorshkov would give to the blue water requirements of Indian Navy compensated the greater price," the official said.
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