http://www.indianexpress.com/news/expen ... ft/426313/Expensive gift
The Indian Express Posted: Feb 21, 2009 at 0156 hrs IST
India’s attempt to procure the Admiral Gorshkov may not have been technically bad from the start, but it appears to be so now, without doubt. This Kiev Class aircraft carrier was decommissioned in 1996 after a rather chequered and short history of service. Now, Moscow has told New Delhi that the deal will cost yet another $700 million. The ship will not be delivered before 2012; and the final amount stands at $2.9 billion, a rather heavy price for something Russia was to deliver on August 15, 2008 at a gift price of $1 billion. But even if India is stuck with this bad deal, there’s no denying that we need the Gorshkov (rechristened Vikramaditya).
India’s sole aircraft carrier, INS Viraat, is now a high-maintenance vessel undergoing overhaul to extend its sea life. Viraat was not available to India during Kargil, and is expected to last at best till 2011. Therefore, India needs another aircraft carrier for several reasons. First, the necessity of a blue-water navy capable of influencing events in the Indian Ocean. Second, the strategic shift of the Chinese military from land to sea-based doctrine, coupled with its investments in aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines to acquire long legs reaching into the Indian Ocean. Third, the increased vulnerability of global sea lines carrying Oil in India’s backyard, as well as threats along our long coastline. Fourth, our sad experience with indigenisation — India’s indigenous air defence ship is still a work in progress and may not be ready before 2014-15. Naval aviation is a highly specialised field and needs big aircraft carriers. Thus, India will have to buy the Gorshkov, and pay up in order to do so.
The Gorshkov saga should be a learning experience for India. The defence establishment will have to come out of its Cold War-era, single-source mindset, which anyway belies other big and dependable partnerships, most notably with Israel. It’s time to analyse hardware defence procurement from Russia as a whole, which supplies the same equipment to China, which uses Indian money to subsidise its decrepit shipyards, and which withheld critical technology for the T90s and is the cause of our bigger problem of spare parts. Defence is often a sellers’ market, and the Gorshkov deal was perhaps inevitable at the time. But the larger point is, defence deals mean cold and hard bargaining, not redundant emotional ties. India must watch its step as it goes shopping. The path to national security and strategic edge is one of careful and considered negotiation through available options.
E os russos abrem tudo, ToT e tudo mais...
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