FUTURE AIRCRAFT CARRIERS India and Russia

India is preparing to accept a Russian carrier.
In a visit to the country in mid March, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed three defence contracts with his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh. In the largest agreement, India agreed to pay Russia $2.34bn for the 45,000-ton Admiral Gorshkov carrier.
"India is far too reliant on Russia and this is costing it domestic shipbuilding expertise."The Admiral Gorshkov was first commissioned by the Soviet Union in 1987, but since a 1994 boiler room explosion it has been unused, with the exception of a period between late 1995 and early 1996 when it briefly returned to service with the Russian fleet. In 2004, the Indians agreed to purchase the ship for $974 million, but the Russians later negotiated the sales price upwards in return for making modifications to the long-dormant carrier. It is expected to be delivered in mid-2012. Once accepted by the Indian Navy, the ship will be known as the INS Vikramaditya.
"The Indians have some very impressive plans for the future, but are seeing very slow progress on their carrier programmes," says Wertheim. "I think they are far too reliant on Russia and this is costing them domestic shipbuilding expertise in the long run."
The two other agreements signed by Putin and Singh were a $1.2bn deal for India to purchase 29 more Mig-29K aircraft from Russia and a $600.7m cooperative venture on a new transport aircraft.
In a December 2009 news conference, India's top admiral, Nirmal Verma, told reporters that the Indian Navy will launch a 40,000-ton domestically built carrier sometime in 2010. However, while the keel of that ship was laid down in March 2009, the Indian Navy has now called for a commissioning date of 2014, although many analysts are sceptical that even this revised deadline can be met.
India’s lone existing carrier, INS Viraat, will mark its 50th year of active service later this year.