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Russia, India agree to sign new deal on aircraft carrier overhaul

© www.wikipedia.org Russia, India agree to sign new deal on aircraft carrier overhaul
 Russia, India agree to sign new deal on aircraft carrier overhaul  - Sputnik International
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Russia will soon sign a new deal with India on additional funds to finish a refit of the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier, Russia's state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said on Sunday.

DUBAI, November 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will soon sign a new deal with India on additional funds to finish a refit of the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier, Russia's state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said on Sunday.

"The negotiations were uneasy but the Indian side treated with understanding the existing problems. They recognized the need to additionally finance the contract and in the near future this will be formalized," Mikhail Zavaliy, Rosoboronexport director for special missions said at a major air show in the Middle East.

The Dubai Air Show is running on November 15-19 in the United Arab Emirates. Over 900 companies from about 50 countries, including 24 Russian firms, take part in the event.

Under the original $1.5 billion 2004 contract between Russia's state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport and the Indian Navy, which includes delivery of MiG-29K Fulcrum carrier-based fighters, the work on the aircraft carrier was to have been completed in 2008.

However, Russia later claimed it had underestimated the scale and the cost of the modernization, and asked for an additional $1.2 billion, which New Delhi said was "exorbitant."

After long-running delays and disputes, India offered in February 2008 to raise the refit costs for the aircraft carrier, docked at the Sevmash shipyard in northern Russia for the past 12 years, by up to $600 million.

Russia said it was not satisfied with the proposed amount and the issue of the additional funding remained unresolved until now.

The Admiral Gorshkov is a modified Kiev class aircraft carrier, originally named Baku.

The ship was laid down in 1978 at the Nikolayev South shipyard in Ukraine, launched in 1982, and commissioned with the Soviet Navy in 1987.

It was renamed after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

In 1994, following a boiler room explosion, the Admiral Gorshkov sat in dock for a year for repairs. After a brief return to service in 1995, it was finally withdrawn from service in 1996 and put up for sale.

The ship's displacement is 45,000 tons. It has maximum speed of 32 knots and an endurance of 13,500 nautical miles (25,000 km) at a cruising speed of 18 knots.

 

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