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04.12.2000 10:16:35
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Современность; Флот;
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Индия-нэви дайджест
Приветствую !
Может мореманам и не только будет интересно:
India to commission nine warships, four spy planes in 2001
(Reuters)
2000-12-02 11:15
India to commission nine warships, four spy planes in 2001
NEW DELHI, Dec 2 -
India's navy will commission a destroyer and eight other warships next
year, as well as four Russian-built spy planes, naval chief Admiral Sushil
Kumar said Saturday.
Kumar also said India's plan to hold international maritime exercises
in February off Bombay had drawn responses from 22 countries.
"We are overwhelmed by the response. Two years ago, I did not expect
such a response," Kumar told a news conference in New Delhi.
Seventy warships, including a French nuclear submarine, are scheduled
to sail into Indian waters of the Arabian Sea for the five-days of exercises,
named International Fleet Review, he said.
India has not invited arch-rival Pakistan to the exercises, billed by
New Delhi as the world's first such joint project.
Speaking on the fresh inductions, Kumar said the INS Mumbai, a
Russian-built destroyer, will join the Indian navy along with a
missile-carrying frigate, a corvette and six other warships next year.
The navy also plans to acquire four Russian-built TU-22 maritime patrol
aircraft to bolster its aviation arm, he said. The long-range spy planes can
be fitted with air-to-surface missiles.
Indian military scientists are currently testing a naval version of the
Prithvi surface missile, which can transport a half-tonne warhead up to 250
kilometres .
Experts said the maritime version will have an extended range of 300
kilometres and could be tipped with nuclear warheads.
India is also desperate to lease a nuclear-powered submarine from
Russia, but Moscow is under pressure from the United States not to oblige New
Delhi.
Kumar said the navy, which inducted two warships earlier this year, had
not given up on the option of acquiring nuclear submarines.
But he added the navy will have to wait at least three years before
adding the Admiral Gorshkov, a Russian aircraft carrier which has to be
overhauled.
"The navy is keen to acquire the aircraft carrier from Russia but it
will take at least three years to make it operational," Kumar said.
Moscow has offered the Admiral Gorshkov free of charge to India, but on
the condition India pay for its refit, estimated at 12 billion rupees , as
well as the costs of fighter jets for the aircraft carrier.
India currently has one British-made aircraft carrier.
It has scrapped another one, the INS Vikrant, which was extensively
used in India's third war with Pakistan in 1971.
C u