The Hindu : THE GORSHKOV PACKAGE

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 22, 2004

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THE GORSHKOV PACKAGE

IT MAY SEEM something of an irony that a 29-year-old vessel — which was decommissioned as an aircraft carrier in 1994 — has become the subject of a gargantuan Rs.7,000-crore defence deal. But the 40,000-tonne Admiral Gorshkov, that will be refurbished, retrofitted and delivered to India in 2008, will bear no resemblance to the ageing Soviet-era hulk that has been idly berthed in a Russian shipyard for a decade. Apart from a complete overhaul, the aircraft carrier will come with an entire package of complements, the details of which both India and Russia have been tight-lipped about. What is clear though is that the deal includes the purchase of at least 28 MiG-29Ks, the maritime equivalent of the fighter aircraft, and six Kamov-31 attack and reconnaissance helicopters. The Admiral Gorshkov deal has been clinched after negotiations that lasted a decade, interminable rounds of haggling over prices and some sudden hitches that threatened to derail the acquisition recently.

The Indian Navy had been casting about for an aircraft carrier even before that old warhorse, the INS Vikrant, was decommissioned in 1997. The serviceability of its only other aircraft carrier, the ageing INS Viraat, is also unlikely to extend beyond 2010, and even this was made possible by a major life-extension refit conducted in 1999. As things stand, it is not clear when the project to build an indigenous Air Defence Ship (read: small aircraft carrier) will see fruition. According to conservative estimates, it will take at least a decade to put together a fully operational ADS. Anxiety that the expertise acquired in handling aircraft carriers may be lost if the Navy waited indefinitely for the ADS was one of the reasons it pushed hard for the Gorshkov acquisition. Another reason, of course, relates to the Navy's increasing role as a "sea-guardian". India has already begun policing sea-lanes and would like to maintain a strong presence in the Indian Ocean from the Malacca Straits in the east to Cape Town in the west. While an extra aircraft carrier would help to maintain a somewhat stronger presence on both the eastern and western seaboards, India's massive naval ambitions are hardly going to be fulfilled by the addition of the Gorshkov alone.

There has been considerable speculation about two "side deals" being covertly negotiated along with the Admiral Gorshkov package, both of which are probably related to New Delhi's ambitions as a nuclear power. India has shown considerable interest in leasing Akula-II class nuclear powered submarines from the Russians as well as four TU-22 long-range bombers. While both these pieces of hardware are capable of carrying and delivering nuclear weapons, New Delhi appears far more interested in the submarines. These highly sophisticated machines are difficult to detect, can remain under water for extended periods and — in the eyes of some members of the defence establishment — will enable India to have an effective sea-based nuclear deterrent. Both India and Russia claim that leasing Akulas would not violate the provisions of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which they interpret as covering only nuclear weapons technology and not nuclear-powered submarines. Both Governments, however, have preferred to keep any information related to negotiations about the Akula-class submarines under strict wraps, aware of its likely repercussions among Western Governments. According to the Defence Minister, George Fernandes, the Akula-class submarines were not even discussed during his recent talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Ivanov — a claim that throws absolutely no additional light on this sensitive subject.

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