Fórum Defesa Brasil

Medvedev asks shipyard to deliver Adm. Gorshkov carrier on time
Rajiv Singh
03 July 2009

Severodvinsk: Russian president Dmitry Medvedev yesterday asked Russian shipbuilder Sevmash, currently engaged on the refit programme of aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya (ex-Adm Gorshkov), to ensure completion of the project as per the latest schedule for ''otherwise there would be grave consequences.''

Image: Piotr Butwoski''This is a matter of prestige,'' the president said at a meeting at the famed shipyard, one of Russia's oldest and renowned for the number and variety of submarines it has constructed. ''The project should be completed under the deadline that was agreed upon and under the co-ordinated parameters,'' Medvedev underlined.

''We should think of this as a first, very difficult experience,'' Medvedev said on Thursday in the northern port of Severodvinsk. ''We need to complete the carrier and deliver it to our Indian partners. Otherwise there could be grave consequences.''

Medvedev took note that the refit programme had no equal for the sophisticated design solutions it had brought into play and the amount of work involved. ''But we should complete this work,'' the president said. ''All disputes (with Indian clients) should be settled. It is necessary to agree on the remaining unsettled parameters and complete the work,'' he stressed.

Earlier, Nikolai Kalistratov, director general, Sevmash, pointed out that a careful examination of all the equipment and various components of the aircraft carrier had revealed that refitting and repairing it would be much more expensive than earlier planned.

''We had to replace all equipment, so, making the price going up dramatically,'' he said with regret. He noted, however, that the shipyard would obligatorily finalize the project. ''We have already decided and prepared everything regarding tests,'' he said, adding that the Russian side would hold the tests first. The Indian Navy would follow thereafter.

The handover to the Indian Navy is scheduled for 2012, four years behind the original 2008 schedule. The contract to refurbish the aircraft carrier was originally solemnised in 2004.

The Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk hopes to complete the modernization project and launch trial tests of the warship in 2011. The INS Vikramaditya aircraft carrier is expected to have a service life of at least 30 years.

The Gorshkov affair

The most high profile of all Indo-Russian defence projects, the refit programme of the 44,570 tonne, INS Vikramaditya, is an example of all that has gone wrong with the celebrated Indo-Russian defence co-operation. Price renegotiations, protracted delays, substandard equipment have all led to a gradual, but definite, phasing out of Russia as a source of defence supplies for the Indian military establishment.

As a matter of fact, for the first time ever, Israel has now supplanted Russia as the top defence supplier to India by way of military sales in 2008-09. There can be no doubt that Israel has also supplanted the Russians in the strategic importance of the defence contracts being handled by them.

Matters have been worse confounded with Russia's couldn't-care-less attitude, which has riled New Delhi no end.

This steady deterioration in strategic relationships between Russia and India is well highlighted by the Gorshkov affair.

Very late, sometime close to 2007, Russian authorities begin to leak stories in the media that the modernization programme of the aircraft carrier was way behind schedule and that it would not be possible to complete refurbishment at terms as negotiated in 2004. A matter of great pride for the navy and the country these stories were greeted with a sense of shock within India.

The INS Vikramaditya/Adm Gorshkov carrier was not only intended to add massive punch to the navy's blue water capabilities but was also looked upon as being the poster boy for the country's fast developing strategic capabilities.

Along with the AWACS aircraft and the Sukhoi-30MKI programme, the Gorshkov was part of the triad of conventional strategic capabilities, and in terms of size, perhaps the most potent and obvious of these new strategic symbols.

After initial teething problems with its engines, the Su-30MKI programme went on stream smoothly. The AWACS programme, like the Gorshkov, due for delivery in 2008, ran into trouble.

So did some others, like the Talwar class stealth frigates. But it was the Gorshkov that gradually became the focus of all that was turning out to be wrong with the Indo-Russian defence relationship.

First stories had the Russians claiming that the amount of new cabling required for the ship was seriously underestimated, which they claimed would be more than three times than original estimates.

Subsequent stories began to portray the refit programme itself as being a virtual new construction and that amounts of $3 billion would be required to complete the project.

In a criminal waste of time the shipyard pulled out its entire workforce from the project and redeployed them onto other projects. It was Indian money, paid as advance for the project, which had pulled the shipyard out of bankruptcy and put idle Russian workers back to work. These advances also allowed the shipyard to carry out a fair amount of modernisation of equipment.

Matters reached a stage where the Russians began to talk about appropriating the ship as part of the Russian Navy, compelling Indian Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta to issue a stern reminder that, with the payment of advances and signing of the 2004 contract, the ship was Indian property.

The Gorshkov affair simply became symptomatic of overall Russian incompetence in teh construction and delivery of vital defence equipment. The first batch of the Talwar class stealth frigates (Krivak) were delayed by atleast thirteen months and so was another strategically vital AWACS project.

The strengthened, re-engined Russian Il-76 aircraft, being the platform for the project, was handed over inordinately late for further integration work with Israeli electronics and radars.

As relations worsened, the Russians, very stupidly, took recourse to belligerence. India, in a very determined manner began to cut out Russia out of all military contracts it possibly could, leading to windfall gains for Israeli, American and European suppliers.

The previous few years also marked a strategic shift for India from its traditional Russian orbit to a pro-Western one, leading to landmark agreements in the nuclear and defence fields, which has altered traditional geo-political equations in the region.

Medvedev's comforting noises may now be seen as part of an attempt to correct the course for Russia, but it is likely that the damage done may already be too deep for any immediate reversal.

Presentation on ATV breaks surface!



India’s nuclear submarine programme has been an open secret for well over two decades, despite the fact that successive governments has so far either denied its very existence or called it a mere technology demonstrator. But now the government’s official stamp on the top-secret project has finally surfaced through the stubborn blanket of secrecy.

Headlines Today has obtained access to a classified presentation made by India’s defence establishment to the National Security Advisory Board in 2008 drawing up full-fledged official overview of the top secret programme. Never before has a government document on the project, codenamed Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV), ever come out. The presentation completely debunks the government’s recent indications that the project is aimed at building a technology demonstrator.

In fact, in big bold type, the submarine is declared to be a “platform for mutiple strategic deterrent” – in other words, a vessel that will ultimately carry and be capable of firing nuclear-tipped intercontinental-range ballistic missiles (ICBMs), and have near limitless endurance out at sea. In that sense, the secret document once and for all settles all doubts about India’s nuclear deterrence at sea.

Vice Admiral (Retd) AK Singh, who, while in service, was associated with the secretive project said, “It’s a phenomenal and welcome milestone. The secrecy is not surprising. India has done what all other great nations have done when they build strategic assets of this kind. It’s only once the submarine hits the water that the secrecy goes, and that will happen. The submarine will soon be put into the water, and in time provide India a crucial second-strike capability.”

The submarine is scheduled to be launched – a technical term for flooding of its dry-dock and eased into open water – at the end of this month, though it is not yet certain if Vijay Diwas on July 26 will be the chosen date.

Strategic affairs analyst Brahma Chellaney, who has written in the past about India’s nuclear deterrent, said on the channel that the success of India’s nuclear submarine is hinged almost wholly on how successfully India can test and operationalise a submarine-launched ballistic missile with ranges that can touch the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Beijing. The presentation, in fact, makes it quite clear that the submarine will be a “platform for strategic position in line with GOI policy”.

“We must not jump the gun. It is critical at this stage to understand that the weapons platform for the submarine is what will make it a strategic asset,” Chellaney said.

The specifications and configuration of the submarine remain top secret, and the presentation makes specific mention of what goes into the boat, though it does establish that the submarine has been built with stealth physics characteristics, modern dynamics and modular architecture that will allow it to be upgraded with new and better systems easily in the future. Interestingly, after Headlines Today broadcast its report on the secret presentation, Defence Minister AK Antony declined to comment. He said, “I cannot comment on the country’s strategic capabilities,” which in itself is evolution from the tradition of absolute denial.

July 11, 2009
India's home-built nuke sub
Vessel set to launch before Aug 15, but sea trials another 1-1/2 years away
By Ravi Velloor, South Asia Bureau Chief

NEW DELHI - INDIA'S home-built nuclear submarine will make its first splash shortly, certainly before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addresses the nation on Aug 15, people familiar with the plans said.

'The original idea was for the PM to finish his independence day speech and then travel to Vizag to launch the submarine,' a senior official told The Straits Times, using the abbreviation for Vishakhapatnam, a city on India's eastern seaboard.

'But that was not considered feasible. So we are planning the event a few days ahead of that, depending on the PM's schedule.'

The launch of the nuclear-powered submarine will mark a milestone in the super-secret Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) programme and is the first step to completing India's nuclear triad: the ability to launch nuclear missiles from the air, land and now, sea.

Alongside that, India has been testing its sea-launched ballistic missiles.

'The August launch is essentially to float the tub in the dock,' sources said. 'Sea trials are still another 18 months away, but we are fully confident of the machine.'

Defence Minister A.K. Antony said in February that the project was in its final stages. 'Some years back, there were some bottlenecks in terms of supply of parts. It is over now. We will announce the vessel's launch whenever it is ready.'

The ATV programme charter is believed to be for an initial three submarines, probably the size of 6,000 tonnes each. It garners the combined resources of more than two dozen government and private organisations. Started in the 1970s, the trickiest part of the project was apparently to design the miniaturised nuclear reactor, for which some help came from Russia. The 100MW electrical reactor is said to use highly enriched uranium.

People familiar with the plans said the design includes several measures to prevent nuclear radiation in the event of a lethal accident. Two decades ago, Moscow loaned India a Charlie-class nuclear submarine so it could gain experience with nuclear submarines. That vessel joined the Indian Navy as the INS Chakra.

Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times

velloor@sph.com.sg

Indian indigenous nuclear sub to be unveiled on 26 July: report
16 July 2009

New Delhi: The secretive Indian nuclear submarine programme, referred to as the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV), may finally step out into clear sunlight at the Navy's construction docks at the Vishakhapatnam shipyard on 26 July, if reports making the rounds are to be believed. Reports suggest that the launch of the submarine will take place at the hands of Gursharan Kaur, wife of prime minister Manmohan Singh, who will smash the auspicious coconut on its hull.

A report in India Today magazine says that the nuclear submarine has been named as Arihant (destroyer of enemies).


A Russian Project 885 Severodvinsk class submarine –likely design base for the Indian ATV project


The submarine is currently housed in a dry dock called the Shipbuilding Centre (SBC) in Visakhapatnam, which will be flooded and the submarine floated out. The submarine is then expected to commence harbour and sea trials for an extended period of time, before eventual induction in the Indian Navy.

The harbour and sea trials are necessary to test the indigenously designed submarine's nuclear power plant, auxiliary systems as well as its weapon system. The submarine will reportedly be armed with 12 K-15 ballistic missiles. The whole process is expected to take another two to three years before final commissioning.

The launch of the indigenous ATV (Arihant!) precedes the acquisition of a leased Russian Akula II nuclear attack submarine by the Indian Navy at the end of the year.

The Akula II submarine is expected to perform a crew training role with the Indian Navy, even as the service adds three ATVs by 2015. Reports for long have suggested that the hull sections of another two ATVs have been completed at the L&T facility at Hazira, Gujarat, and will be transported to Vizag as soon as the first ATV (Arihant) exits the dry dock for sea trials.

Deep impact
Sandeep Unnithan
July 23, 2009



At around noon on July 20, history was created at a brightly-lit, completely enclosed dry dock called the Ship Building Centre in Visakhapatnam. As the waters from the harbour cascaded into the 15-metre deep dry dock, a long black shape sitting on a series of wooden blocks, stirred. With a lurch, it slowly rose, just like a sea monster.

After 11 years of construction, the Arihant (meaning destroyer of enemies), India’s first indigenous nuclearpowered submarine, was finally in the water. The three-hour ‘test undocking’ was only the dress rehearsal. The actual July 26 event will see Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s wife Gursharan Kaur breaking the auspicious coconut on the hull of the 5,000-tonne submarine, following the naval tradition where a lady launches a warship.

The momentous launch would complete a cycle which began in 1974 with the then prime minister Indira Gandhi authorising the building of a nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) under the classified Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project. For over three decades, the highly classified programme has been propelled by political vigour.

Carried out under the direct supervision of successive prime ministers, it formed part of the national secrets, including the nuclear weapons programme, which each incumbent bequeathed to his successor. “The launch of the submarine puts us in an exclusive league of five other nations capable of designing and building their own nuclear submarines,” says Vice-Admiral (retired) M.K. Roy, the ATV’s first project director.

The legacy of prime ministers

The ATV project has remained under the direct supervision and control of Indian prime ministers

Indira Gandhi
Indira Gandhi, 1966-77 and 1980-84
Authorises building of an Nsub (SSBN) after 1974 Pokhran test. Launches ATV programme in March 1984. Signs IGA with the Soviet Union in 1984 for assistance in design and construction of an N-sub.

Rajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Gandhi, 1984-89
Oversees ATV programme in its early years. Understood its relevance to the N-weapon programme he restarted. Became the only Indian PM to visit an N-sub, the INS Chakra, leased from Russia in 1988.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, 1998-2004
Conducts N-tests, enunciates nuclear doctrine which calls for a submarine-based second-strike capability. Reopens talks with Russia for N-sub lease to train crews and assistance on the reactor. Deal for leasing one Akula-2 N-sub signed.

Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh, 2004 till date
Supervises the final phase of ATV construction. Enlarges the N-sub programme with sanction for building of a new class of SSNs and SSBNs based on Russia’s Akula class for a projected fleet of 10 N-subs over the next 20 years.
A nuclear submarine is powered by a nuclear reactor which generates tremendous heat that drives a steam turbine. It is, however, one of the most complex machines on earth, the reason why only five countries have the capability. The last country to join was China, way back in August 1971.

Unlike the conventional diesel-electric submarines which have to surface to charge their batteries, nuclear submarines have unlimited underwater endurance and their speed is twice that of their conventional counterparts.

Armed with nuclear tipped ballistic missiles (SLBMs), they form the third leg of a nation’s nuclear ‘triad’ comprising air and surface-launched nuclear weapons. Over the next five years, the troika of Arihant class SSBNs, each costing Rs 3,200 crore, will make the third leg of India’s nuclear triad—a strategic underwater platform for launching nuclear weapons.

The Arihant is, for all practical purposes, a functional, fully-fitted out submarine. After this brief ceremony, the submarine is to be towed out for the first time across the naval dockyard and moored in an enclosed pier called Site Bravo—“from the maternity ward to the nursery”, as one official puts it.

Over the next few months, it will commence a series of full system harbour trials. The primary system, a nuclear reactor, generates the heat which drives the secondary system, a steam turbine which spins the submarine’s propeller, are to be tested separately.

First, the steam turbine is to be jump-started with shore-based supply. The next significant step will be starting up the submarine’s nuclear reactor where the zirconium rods in the core of the submarine’s 80 MW pressurised water reactor will be slowly raised, allowing the reactor to become critical in slow degrees. It will take around three weeks to go fully critical.

Only after all systems are tested, will the primary and secondary systems be mated. If all goes well, the submarine will be allowed to sail out to begin sea trials next year. Weapon trials, including the firing of its arsenal of 12 K-15 short range ballistic missiles, are the last stage of the trials before the submarine is finally commissioned to the navy by 2011.

The submarine will carry four of an under-development submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM) ‘K-X’ with 3,500-km range, each with several warheads called multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRVs). These missiles will enable the submarine to conduct deterrent patrols in proximity to Indian waters.

The Indian Navy is only responsible for running and maintaining the nuclear submarines. All its tasking and patrols are to be controlled by the Nuclear Command Authority (NCA) headed by the prime minister. Orders will be passed to the submarine through a secure communication network. The launch of the Arihant is a major step forward in India’s quest for a minimal but credible nuclear deterrent. Its Asian rival China has 10 nuclear-powered submarines and is building an equal number, giving the Chinese navy tremendous reach into the Indian Ocean. But India has still a long way to go, says strategic affairs expert Brahma Chellaney.

“It will still be some years before an N-sub with SLBMs is deployed. In fact, the gaps in India’s nuclear deterrent vis-à-vis China remain glaring. If India’s nuclear deterrent was credible, Beijing wouldn’t mess with India. But the rising Chinese bellicosity suggests otherwise,” he says.

The Arihant has taken 11 years to complete. It is the first in a series of nuclear-powered submarines to be built over the next two decades. The long arduous road began in 1967 with a Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) feasibility report on nuclear propulsion. A more detailed report was presented in 1971. And after the Pokhran nuclear test of 1974, Indira Gandhi authorised a project to build a nuclear submarine which would carry a robust, survivable nuclear deterrent. It was always called a naval reactor project.

Chain of command

The decision-makers who guide the nuke submarine project

Prime minister
Heads Nuclear Command Authority. Supervises project through National Security Adviser.

Political council
Defence Minister, Finance Minister, External Affairs Minister. Decides on the funding of the project.

Executive council
National Security Adviser, Navy chief, DRDO chief, BARC chief, DG-ATV.

For a good reason though. Compacting a nuclear reactor to fit snugly within the submarine’s 10-metre diameter steel cylinder was going to be the greatest challenge. The reactor also had to go from full ahead to full astern and also from high speed to low speed. The BARC derivatives of its civilian power reactors were too large and incapable of meeting the required performance parameters. Work on the ATV began only in the 1980s with Soviet assistance.

In 1981, Indira Gandhi sent a joint navy and BARC team to visit the USSR to study an offer from the Soviet Union to design and build nuclear submarine. “She was enthused by the fact that we were getting access to so much hightechnology,” says a former project head. Months before her assassination in 1984, Indira Gandhi supervised a secret intergovernmental agreement with the Soviet Union under which India would receive training on handling a nuclear submarine and design assistance to build one.

A three-year lease was signed for acquiring an elderly Charlie-I class nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine (SSGN). And the ATV project team was set up, headed by a retired vice-admiral, who was given the rank of secretary to the Government of India who and reported to the chief of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

The first group from the navy’s nascent Submarine Design Group (SDG) which actually designed the ATV trained with Russia’s Rubin design bureau. Funds for the Rs 2,800-crore project were never a problem and were sanctioned from the cabinet secretariat, and the joint DRDO-Navy project was always a closed loop within the Prime Minister’s Office.

After Indira’s assassination, the ATV baton passed on to Rajiv Gandhi who was also the defence minister. “Rajiv understood both technology and strategy and was in favour of the project. He would keenly participate in our discussions on whether our N-submarine needed one reactor or two and the availability of enriched uranium for the reactors,” says a former project official.

In January 1988, Rajiv donned work overalls and boarded the INS Chakra as she steamed into Visakhapatnam to join the navy. He became the only Indian prime minister to board a nuclear-powered submarine. The return of the Chakra at the expiry of its lease in 1991 coincided with the implosion of the former Soviet Union, the tectonic event that nearly killed the project. Officials say there was a perceptible lack of political interest in the project on both sides: President Boris Yeltsin in Russia and prime minister Narasimha Rao. The SDG, meanwhile, began converting the Charlie-1 designs for industrial manufacture.

The Indian private sector was chosen to build the 104-metre-long prototype, dubbed S2. Larsen&Toubro (L&T) built the hull, Tata Power made the control systems and Walchandnagar Industries made the complex high pressure pumps and valves which carried saturated steam. The BARC had still not succeeded in perfecting the reactor so the Government decided to continue reactor development parallel to the construction of the first submarine.

On January 5, 1998, in a quiet ceremony at the L&T’s Hazira facility, the then DRDO chief APJ Abdul Kalam symbolically cut the first steel plate of the ATV. The project picked up speed under the NDA and during the tenure of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the prime minister who stunned the world by bringing India out of the nuclear closet. Vajpayee, who also headed the newly-established NCA, chaired the apex committee of the ATV.

The project also had two other authorities—the political and the executive council. The project remained under the direct control of Vajpayee through his national security adviser, Brajesh Mishra. Talks for the lease of another nuclear submarine with Russia were revived.

In January 2004, India and Russia signed a secret $650-million intergovernmental agreement (IGA) for the completion and lease of one unfinished Akula class nuclear-powered attack submarine and training crews to man them. (The submarine, also called the Chakra, is undergoing trials in Russia and is expected to join the navy later this year). The crucial part of the IGAwas the assistance to build the reactor, which had delayed the project by years.

The project entered its last mile during Manmohan Singh’s first tenure in 2004. He attended several meetings and would often ask project officials, “Everything alright?” The query was a mere formality because the project received unstinted support. In 2005, the UPA Government gave an in-principle clearance for building a follow-on series of larger ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs), costing nearly Rs 8,000 crore a piece or nearly twice that of the current series of ATVs and another line of nuclear-powered fast attack submarines (SSNs) to escort them.

“If you need money, you’ll get it,” the then finance minister P. Chidambaram had assured the project team. The last and most important milestone was reached in 2006 when an indigenously-built version of the Russian VM-4 PWR, which propelled the Charlie-1, was successfully landtested and sealed into the hull of the ATV the following year.

As Singh walks towards the Arihanton July 26, he can have the satisfaction of having supervised the final chapter in India’s nuclear destiny.