The prototype of the MiG-29K (number 311) was loaded by crane onto the deck of the new aircraft carrier at Severodvinsk in India last month. The Sevmash shipyard said the conversion work ex- Gorshkov of the Russian navy are 90% complete.
Renamed INS Vikramaditya , the ship will begin its sea trials in May of next year and will be commissioned here a year ago (December 4, 2012), as part of celebrations of the day the Indian Navy. Meanwhile, the first 16 MiG-29K/KUB production commissioned by the Indian Navy will be delivered this month. Russia gave the Gorshkov in the condition it was for the Indian Navy in March 2004 with the promise that the government of New Delhi to carry out modernization of the ship. The ship was again thrown into the sea in November 2008 as a unit Stöber, with a ski jump type ramp at the bow 14 degrees inclination.
The conversion of the initial contract was $ 617 million (U.S.), excluding the training and after sales support. A dispute between Moscow and New Delhi on the rising costs suspended the works for several months before a final agreement was signed and the value rose to U.S. $ 1.75 billion. With the inclusion of contracts for training, ground support equipment and infrastructure, the total rose to $ 2 billion. India is building a second aircraft carrier equipped with ski jump in Cochin.
The demonstrator MiG-35D (number 154) received a hook and take part of the sea trials of Vikramaditya . It replaces the two-seat MiG-29KUB (number 951), which crashed in Akhtubinsk earlier this year. The MiG-29K nomoposto (number 941) also participate in the testing instead of the prototype that is currently on the ship. (This is one of two MiG-29K which conducted tests on the deck of Admiral Kutnetsov . Subsequently, both served as demonstrator aircraft on several projects before the MiG 'graoundeados' earlier this year.)
India has already ordered a second batch of 29 MiG-29K worth an estimated $ 1.5 billion.
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