BY : ZEE NEWS




Navy today said it was not "unduly perturbed" by the delay in delivery of its second aircraft carrier Gorshkov, though Moscow has not officially informed New Delhi of any plans to handover the warship late.

"We came across the reports of delay in the media only. The Russians have not officially informed us of any such plans," Naval chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta said.

"We are awaiting a response from Russia on negotiations on the delivery of the carrier," he told reporters on the sidelines of an international seminar on Naval armaments.

"Whenever we receive the carrier be it 2010, 2011 or 2012, the warship is going to add a new dimensions to the reach and capability of the Indian Navy," Mehta said.

He said in the next few years when the Navy will receive its new indigenous Stealth frigates and guided missile destroyers along with the carrier, the force would, for the first time, have the capability of weaving a 300 nautical- mile security bubble around the seas surrounding the country.

Indian Naval shipyards are presently engaged in manufacture of three Stealth frigates of over 4,000 tonne displacement, the first of which, INS Shivalak, is likely to be delivered tomorrow.

New Delhi is also manufacturing four 6,500 tonne displacement Guided Missile destroyers as a follow to the Delhi Class destroyers.

Mehta also said that efforts were on to arm most of the warships with Indo-Russian supersonic cruise missile Brahmos.

"We have already armed our frontline warships with the missile and are retrofitting others to fit the weapon system", he said.

On the submarine launched version of the missile, he said at present the Navy did not have large subs in which underwater version of the missile could be fitting.

"But we may experiment by installing the missiles on the retrofitted Kilo class submarines or try to carry out the trials on subs of friendly countries", he said.

On the procurement of the Long Range Maritime Reconnaissance

aircraft for the Navy, Mehta said that many foreign producers had responded to India Request for Proposals and currently evaluations were being carried out, which would soon be followed by field trials.

Addressing the seminar at which representatives of global armaments firms, major Indian private sector defence units and officials from defence PSUs were present, the Naval Chief said in the last three years, India had spent as much as USD 10 billion on arms imports and this was expected to reach an astronomical USD 30 billion by 2012.

He said a developing country like India could "ill afford" such expenditure and the nation had to find alternatives in the shape of building indigenous manufacturing base to overcome imports.