NEW DELHI, Dec 2: Russia has sweetened its offer of a controversial aircraft carrier to India with a package including the leasing of a nuclear submarine, Indian news reports and officials said on Monday.
Star News quoted Indian Navy Chief Admiral Madhvendra Singh as defending the move to acquire the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov and said that it was crucial for addressing the Navy’s long-term requirements.
The Admiral Gorshkov, which is expected to replace the aging INS Viraat, has been in the eye of a controversy not only for its billion-dollar price tag but also its unwieldy size, the report said.
But the Navy Chief claimed that its mobility would make it difficult target to hit. “You don’t know where the Viraat is today, you will not know where it will be tomorrow and you don’t know where it will be next week. So an aircraft carrier is by no means a sitting duck,” Singh said at the customary news conference on the eve of Navy Day.
The Gorshkov was commissioned by the Russian Navy in 1987, but did not enter service until 1988. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was retired in 1994. The vessel was offered for sale to India and negotiations over acquiring the 44,000-ton aircraft carrier for the Indian Navy have reportedly been on since then.
The Indian Express said the deal was laced with a nuclear submarine offer by Russia, expected to be signed and sealed during President Vladimir Putin’s visit starting on Tuesday.
“India’s relationship with Russia is taking a quantum leap forward with the recent finalization of an arms package that not only includes the sale of the aircraft carrier, Admiral Gorshkov, but also a three-year controversial lease of a nuclear submarine,” The Express said.
It added that the Akula II class nuclear submarine, a highly sophisticated underwater boat that displaces 10,700 ton of water, will carry nuclear-capable 300-km range Klub class Cruise missiles that are fired from torpedo tubes.
Star News quoted Admiral Singh as saying that any nuclear power would most likely rely on submarines to defend itself.
“India being a declared nuclear state with a ‘No First Use’ doctrine must have a nuclear triad with the strongest arm being at sea, preferably underwater.”
The Express quoted highly-placed sources in the military- industrial complex in Moscow, as saying the highly sensitive nature of the submarine lease, as part of the much-touted Admiral Gorshkov package, had been deliberately kept under wraps by both the Indian and Russian establishments for fear of pressure from western governments.
The Russian sources confirmed that the final price negotiations for the Admiral Gorshkov package which includes 310 T-90 tanks, 30-odd Sukhoi MKI fighter aircraft, the aircraft carrier itself as well as the submarine lease took place some 10 days ago during the visit of the Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Ilya Klebanov, to New Delhi, the Express said.