Delegation
of Indian Navy officers headed by chief of ship building and procurement
department Vice Admiral N.N. Kumar arrived at JSC Sevmash shipyard on
Sept 20. Main result of the inspection was changing of pre-scheduled
start date of Vikramaditya's sea trials.
Military cooperation with India has been always one of Russia's top
priorities. This time, Indian delegation was met by a group of high-ranking
persons headed by president of JSC United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC)
Roman Trotsenko and leadership of Sevmash shipyard – acting director
general Mikhail Budnichenko and chief engineer Alexei Alsufiev, vice
president of USC and director general of Northern Shipbuilding and Ship
Repair Center Anatoly Tiukov, head of military technical cooperation
department Igor Ponomariov, deputy chief of Rosoboronexport's Navy department
Evgeny Odintsov.
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Summarizing results
of inspection, the parties signed a working protocol. Indian Navy's
delegates were satisfied with the course of works on the ship's upgrade
and agreed with Sevmash officials to postpone the start date of sea
trials from Dec 2011 to May 2012 without delaying of the full trial
program providing that the acceptance certificate would be signed in
due time – on Dec 4, 2012.
According
to the protocol, although the works are 4 months behind the schedule,
Russian party obliged to do away with the lag till the beginning of
sea trials, i.e. end of May, 2011. As of today, the ship is 85% ready.
Sevmash will have to complete basic outfitting works, interior finishing,
and mooring trials until March 2012. Electromagnetic field measurements
are scheduled in Apr 2012, and upon their results it will be decided
whether the ship needs degaussing. Till 2012 the shipyard will have
to furnish messrooms, cookrooms, medical and living premises: cabins,
crew quarters, shower rooms and latrines. Besides, the ship must be
checked by Navigation Safety Inspection, and one of its obligatory conditions
is that the trial crew should settle in the ship at least 90 days prior
to the first sortie. Thus, settlement date of Russian crew to INS Vikramaditya
must be mid-Feb 2012.
VADM Kumar
drew attention to a number of other problems, such as training of Indian
crew, transfer of service documentation, etc. Generally, the Indian
party had noticed considerable progress. The next inspection is to arrive
at Sevmash in Jan 2012 to check trials of main propulsion plant.
From: http://rusnavy.com/news/navy/index.php?ELEMENT_ID=13182
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