(Image courtesy Indian Navy/Wikipedia)
It isn’t quite as bad as the headline suggests:
The new Russian built Indian aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya, was supposed to be fully operational by mid-2014 and it was, sort of. What was missing was its primary anti-aircraft missile system; the Israeli LRSAM/Barak 8. Also missing was the short range AK-630 Russian made six-barrel 30mm close-in weapon systems (CIWS), for defense against anti-ship missiles. A year later (Vikramaditya arrived from Russia in January 2014) a temporary solution was found. A 32 year old Indian frigate is about to be retired and had an older version of Barak installed a decade ago. This Barak system will be removed and installed in Vikramaditya as will two AK-630 systems from the frigate. It will likely take at least a year to move the Barak and AK-630 systems from the Godavari class frigate to the Vikramaditya. Long range anti-aircraft missiles are a major part of the carrier air defenses and Barak 1 will do until Barak 8 is ready.
Ya do what ya gotta — and I guess it’s some small comfort that we’re far from the only country with a broken procurement system.
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