the article is compliments of international news sources and the pictures are compliments of various internet sources, the insertions are compliments of me and Wiki;)
RIA Novosti
13:49 28/09/2012
BEIJING, September 28 (RIA Novosti) - China has denied Russian
claims that Chinese firebricks were to blame for boiler failures in the
Russian-refitted Indian Navy aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya, which
suffered propulsion problems during sea trials in the Barents Sea last
month, local daily Beitsin Chenbao reported, quoting Defense Minister
Yan Yujun.
"We checked this, and found that Chinese enterprises which make
such firebricks for naval propulsion systems have never exported such
products to Russia," Yan said.
Earlier this month, Russian media reports, quoting Andrei
Dyachkov, President of United Russian Shipbuilding corporation which
refitted the carrier, claimed the ship's boilers had been damaged due to
failures in the brick insulation separating them from the ship's structure. The shipyard used "sub-standard Chinese firebricks," Dyachkov said.
Another official involved in preparing the Vikramaditya for sea
trials, claimed the reason for the boilers’ failure was India refused
to use asbestos to protect the structure around the boilers from heat,
fearing that the material was dangerous for the crew. He said the
boilers’ designer had to use firebrick, which proved not sufficiently
heatproof.
The Vikramaditya was to have been handed over to India on
December 4 after the sea trials following a much-delayed refit that has
gone massively over-budget. The deadline has now been postponed again
until October 2013, and the cost of the new repairs to the boilers has
not been revealed.
The boiler problem is the latest in a string of hold-ups in the
refit of the ship, in a defense deal that has turned into a shipwreck
of its own, going way over budget and being repeatedly delayed.
India and Russia signed a $947 million dollar deal in 2005 for
the purchase of the carrier, formerly the Russian Navy's Admiral
Gorshkov, but delivery has already been delayed twice, pushing up the
cost of refurbishing the carrier to $2.3 billion.
Sevmash shipyard director Vladimir Pastukhov was fired in 2007 over his poor management of the project.
The Vikramaditya was originally built as the Soviet Project
1143.4 class aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov. The Project 1143.4
carriers and a class of destroyers with the same engines suffered a
history of boiler failures during their lives.
The ship was laid down in 1978 at the Nikolayev South shipyard
in Ukraine, launched in 1982, and commissioned with the Soviet Navy in
1987.
It was renamed after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
In 1994, the Gorshkov sat in dock for a year for repairs after a boiler
room explosion. In 1995, it briefly returned to service but was finally
withdrawn and put up for sale in 1996.
The ship has a displacement of 45,000 tons, a maximum speed of
32 knots and an endurance of 13,500 nautical miles (25,000 km) at a
cruising speed of 18 knots
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