INS Vikramaditya: The Game Changer
The largest, biggest and the costliest platform of the military arsenal joined the Indian Navy with a price tag of $2.3 billion and brought down the curtains on uncertainties, and unforeseen and agonising delays extending over nine years
FINaLLy, ON NOVeMber 16, 2013, Defence Minister a.K. antony commissioned the Indian Naval Ship Vikramaditya at the Sevmash Shipyard, a formidable russian nuclear submarine building centre, situated on the shores of the White Sea. The largest, biggest and the costliest platform of the military arsenal joined the Indian Navy with a price tag of $2.3 billion and brought down the curtains on uncertainties, and unforeseen and agonising delays extending over nine years.
The glittering ceremony planned so meticulously was almost dowsed in subzero temperature and literally bedecked the flight deck with a mantle of snow! The glorious moment in the annals of Indian Navy was witnessed by russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry rogozyn, who is also in charge of defence and space industry, admiral D.K. Joshi, Chief of the Naval Staff, and ajai Malhotra, ambassador of India, among a host of senior government and naval dignitaries from the two countries.
INS Vikramaditya is the modernised and refurbished version of an original Kiev class aircraft carrier which was first commissioned into the russian Navy in 1987 as aviation Cruiser baku. Post the dissolution of the former USSr, it was rechristened as admiral Gorshkov and remained in service until 1995. During august 1995, a multidisciplinary group of senior naval officers was deputed to Murmansk and St Petersburg to thoroughly survey the state of admiral Gorshkov and assess the feasibility for its refurbishment and modernisation as a short take-off but arrested recovery (STObar) or catapult assisted take-off but arrested recovery (CaTObar) aircraft carrier for the Indian Navy. after an exhaustive examination of the ship over three weeks, the team leader was called to brief the empowered high level Indian delegation which had arrived at Moscow to formulate the first ever long-