Navy upbeat on Gorshkov upgrade

The Indian Navy says it is satisfied with the work being carried out to upgrade the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, that it is expected to acquire by the end of 2012.

The Controller, Warship Production of the Indian Navy, Vice Admiral NN Kumar visited Russia earlier this month and surveyed the upgrade process of the carrier that is currently underway.

The Indian Navy’s Public Relations Officer, Commander PVS Satish, said that there had been ‘substantial progress’ in the upgrade process, since the last Indian Naval delegation survey in September last year.

Commander Satish said the Indian Naval delegation witnessed a three-fold increase the deployment of manpower for the upgrade work.

According to sources in the Indian Ministry of Defense, who declined to be named for this article, virtually all the structural work for the upgrade of the carrier is complete and almost half the cabling, of a length of an estimated 2,500 kilometers, has been laid. Sources also indicate that installation of almost all large-sized equipment, like engines, gearboxes, generators and boilers has also been completed and that installation of the piping, ventilation and air conditioning system was likely to be completed by the end of this year.

The sources indicated that this was the result of an increase in the manpower deployment to over 3000 personnel and said they expect harbor trials of the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov to be conducted by early next year.

Russia has set up an Apex Monitoring Committee early this year, under the chairmanship of the head of the United Shipbuilding Corporation of Russia, who is the head of all ship building in Russia, to regularly monitor and supervise the progress of the upgrade process.