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| INS Vikramaditya ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ Indian Navy) |
The Indian Navy faced this situation and wasn’t satisfied with any of the above options. They were already operating the second hand INS Viraat which had served them for 15 years and had completed nearly 50 years of total service. It just had a few years of life left and was becoming increasingly obsolete. With no other option, Indian Navy authorized the building of a carrier locally. But the construction would take 10 years to start, and once it started it would take 10 years to build the carrier and would be ready by 2017 as it would be India’s first attempt at building their own carrier. But India couldn’t wait 20 years for a new carrier and something had to be done to fill the gap when INS Viraat was scheduled to be retired by 2010. The blessing came in disguise of Admiral Gorshkov, which was a Soviet era carrier-cruiser laid to rust after a fire broke out in it just a few years after it entered service. In the ‘90s, Russia offered the entire ship to India for free and offered to refit it and modernize it. This suited Indian Navy’s requirements because, even though the carrier was technically second hand, it would undergo a massive refit which would replace 75% of the existing components and add new improvements and structures like a ski-jump. This would mean that after its refit, the Admiral Gorshkov would be 85% new.........
Now read on: http://defencyclopedia.com/2014/06/22/ins-vikramaditya-the-king-of-the-indian-ocean/
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