Russia Sold $4.7Bln in Arms to India in 2013

February 6 (RIA Novosti) – Russia exported $4.78 billion worth of arms and military equipment to India last year, a senior Russian arms industry official said Thursday.

“It’s a very good result,” Vyacheslav Dzirkaln, deputy head of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, said at the DefExpo-2014 arms fair in New Delhi. 

«Admiral Gorshkov»

The sales represented a leap of more than 50 percent over Russian exports of weaponry to India in 2012, which were estimated at about $3 billion.

India accounted for about a third of all Russian arms exports in 2013, tentatively estimated at a record $15.7 billion, Dzirkaln said. 

"Vikramaditya"

The South Asian country has been the biggest client of the Russian arms industry since 2007. Purchases have included warplanes, gunships and the aircraft carrier Vikramaditya, a refurbished Russian vessel formerly known as the Admiral Gorshkov, which finally arrived in India last month after almost a decade of delays since the $947 million deal was signed in 2004.

First Indian MiG-29 Fighter Jet Lands on Vikramaditya

MOSCOW, February 7 (RIA Novosti) – An Indian MiG-29 naval jet landed on a refitted former Soviet aircraft carrier Friday, marking the first such operation since the ship was delivered by Russia to the south Asian nation earlier this year.

“An exciting event took place today – the first landing of an [Indian] MiG-29 piloted by an Indian pilot on the Vikramaditya,” Russia’s United Shipbuilding Corporation vice president Igor Ponomarev told reporters at the ongoing DEFEXPO-2014 exhibition in New Delhi.

The Vikramaditya, formerly known as the Admiral Gorshkov, was handed over to the Indian navy on November 16 at the Semvash shipbuilder and arrived at a naval base in Kanwar in the beginning of January.

The process of the ship’s official commissioning will take between three and four months, according to the Indian navy. A team of Russian specialists arrived onboard the ship and will stay in India for a year to fix any possible glitches if needed.

The Indian Navy commissioned its first squadron of MiG-29K/KUB carrier-based fighters in 2013.

The squadron, dubbed the “Black Panthers,” comprises 12 single-seat MiG-29Ks and four two-seat MiG-29KUBs, which Russia supplied under a 2004 contract with the Indian Defense Ministry. 

 

The aircraft have until now been stationed at an airbase in Dabolim, in the state of Goa on India's west coast.

In January 2010, New Delhi and Moscow signed a deal worth $1.2 billion for the delivery of an additional 29 MiG-29Ks to the Indian navy.

The Vikramaditya is expected to carry up to 24 MiG-29K/KUB fighter jets.

India has built with Russia’s assistance a training facility for naval pilots to practice aircraft carrier operations.

The facility, known as NITKA, features a takeoff ramp and arrestor cables to enable naval aviators to practice high-precision and high-acceleration takeoffs and landings.

Could India operate its Aircraft Carrier INS vikramaditya without help from Russia?

MOSCOW, February 3 (RIA Novosti) – A training facility for naval pilots to practice aircraft carrier operations is set to open in India’s coastal Goa region later this month, the head of the Russian company overseeing the project said Monday. The site is based on a Russian facility under construction near the Black Sea town of Yeysk that was planned to open last year but has suffered undisclosed delays.  

 

India’s first large aircraft carrier, the Russian-built INS Vikramaditya

“The Indian NITKA facility will be officially operational in early February. The takeoff system is in place, and the Indian pilots are already flying there,” Sergei Vlasov, head of the St. Petersburg-based Nevskoe Design Bureau said in an exclusive interview with RIA Novosti.

The facility will train Indian naval aviators who will later be stationed on India’s first large aircraft carrier, the Russian-built INS Vikramaditya, delivered to the country last month. The Russian facility is known to feature a takeoff ramp and arrestor cables to enable naval aviators to practice high-precision and high-acceleration takeoffs and landings.

It was not immediately clear whether the Indian facility replicated all of those systems. Computer simulator training of carrier-based aircraft began in Goa in 2007.

Indian naval aviators have also recently trained in the United States. The first Indian pilot to complete US carrier qualifications did so in 2007, the US Navy said.

 

© RIA Novosti