The Indian Navy is attempting to defend the indefensible. Luckily, we are not talking about India's coastline but the Admiral Gorshkov / INS Vikramaditya deal. Photo Credit: RosoboronexportSeptember 29, 2009, (Sawf News) - The Indian Navy is attempting to defend the indefensible. Luckily, we are not talking about India's coastline but the Admiral Gorshkov / INS Vikramaditya deal.
In response to a RTI, the service has admitted it placed the $1.5 billion Gorshkov order without visual inspection!
"As per the contract signed in January 2004, the original package was drawn up based on visual examination in as-is condition wherein it was found that the majority of the equipment, systems could be repaired while the electronic equipment could be renewed," Vice-Admiral S P S Cheema with the Integrated Headquarters, Ministry of Defence (Navy), wrote in his RTI response.
To better appreciate the perfidy of the negligence, remember that at the time of its purchase the 17 year old aircraft carrier had been rusting in dry docks for 8 years after having sustained an explosion on board.
If you don't call that junk, what else is junk!
The Admiral goes on to say "on opening up the equipment for a detailed examination and survey of the state of the hull structures, systems, cabling, etc, it emerged that these could not be repaired and hence would have to be replaced with new ones".
"These additionalities have resulted in the increase in project costs."
From the careful wording of the statement, it is clear that it wasn't the Indian Navy which opened up the equipment for detailed examination! The Navy became aware of the problem only when the Russians shocked the country with its exorbitant price hike. If Indian Navy personnel had been on board the Gorshov when it was strip examined there would have been no price dispute and no delay!
The Navy has now accepted the revised delivery date of the ship as December 2012.
The casualness with which billions of dollars of taxpayers money is spent should become evident to those unfamiliar with the working of successive Indian governments.
More importantly, the murky purchase should explain why Kargils happen only to India.
The most hilarious part of the RTI response is:
"Russian side has been intimated that the cost revision now proposed by them is final and no further additional ties will be accepted for negotiation. The same has been accepted by the Russian side," he said.
The Navy is trying to show some spine here! How about some resignation letters from Defense Ministry bureaucrats?
Interestingly, the Admiral accepted that the Navy could purchase a new aircraft carrier for $3-4 billion, a figure that I have mentioned several times in past discussions on the subject.
Here is a link to the complete story.
For details and history of the Gorshkov / Vikramaditya deal please see my knol INS Vikramaditya / Admiral Gorshkov
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