This frigate should by all accounts be a potent vessel. Not to mention its symbolism as the first “Russian” blue water surface vessel seem appropriate given the Gorshkov name.

I’m not saying it won’t be potent. but 4000 tonnes is just not impressive or majestic enough.

don’t say that, Liger might have a cardiac arrest. :p

When even Indian Army and Navy are going to purchase foreign light choppers, why would Russia go for Dhruv!?

the foreign light choppers (single engined) meant to replace the chetak and cheetah (license built Alouettes) are in a completely different category to the much larger twin engined dhruv which weighs twice as much. there is no connection whatsoever.

exactly Loke, people ignore the PPP value of the INR in this kind of discussions. India’s defence spending rises at about the same rate as that of the economy, or just a bit higher. I would expect it to stabilise around 2.75% of GDP. because given that more and more systems are being developed and manufactured in-house, the acquisition and running costs won’t increase by that much even though overall capability will.

3. India is in a much rougher neighborhood than the UK, therefore they will probably keep spending a high percentage of GDP on defence

and yet % GDP figures spent on defence are nearly same for UK and India, 2.5% vs 2.6%.

Gorshkov was very much a bargain basement deal that went very badly wrong.

wrong, it was the ONLY possible deal. the fact that it was supposed to be a bargain is secondary.

Nope, my point still stands

like it stood in the ‘scotland has too many airbases’ discussion in the defence review thread ?? :dev2:
I do note that you haven’t bothered to answer however.

I know one is under construction, which further proves my point, that they don’t have the money, they simply cannot afford a CVF. As for the Indian carrier under construction, its a much smaller ship.

much smaller ship because it is the first one being built in India, not because there is no money to build one. in fact the parliamentary committee on defence raised question why a 40,000 tonne design was chosen because in their opinion India needed a larger 60,000 + tonne design. the navy replied that they wanted to start small because of the inexperience in shipyards.

the next design would definitely be much larger, around CVF size and in all likelihood would be nuclear powered. to put it simply it will better the CVF and will of course have a far less bloated price tag.

Much the same with the Sukhois when the Indians screwed up local assembly.

really ? when did that happen ? man, your imagination certainly works on overdrive.

To me though, his comments just highlights the fact that India can’t afford a CVF and he knows it. The fact that he has resorted to trying to anger me, just shows how insecure he really is!

the fact that you take the utterings of an anonymous Indian (even that is not proven) as proof of something says something about your thought process, can you guess what ? 😀
to top that you feel a nagging need to declare

I’m not bothered in the slightest by his comments

you can almost hear the anguished cry of ‘mommy !’ after that !

now where is the ROFL icon when you need it. :p

Mod Edit: Quoted text removed from quoted posting

or the UK could try returning some (say 25%) of the wealth it looted from India and reduce itself to a perennially pauper state ?

as for aid from UK is considered, India does not need it and certainly does not ask for it, it’s a pittance anyway. I mean it could fund you for a meth induced trip to the moon but that’s about it.
this is how UK aid to India, irrelevant as it is, is spent in actuality.
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showpost.php?p=1618733&postcount=88

Name us a carrier in Indian service of which India was the first user, i.e not bought used from another country

that’s not what you said in your earlier post. ergo, you haven’t answered my question. 🙂

btw, name one country that has a foreign built carrier inducted first hand.
are there any ? 😉

Neither Brazil nor India can afford CVF. Both have have carriers, but their carriers were used and bought very much on the cheap, like much of their equipment. (I asked which ?)

your point applies only to the vikrant and the viraat, the latest of which was bought about 30 years back, when the Indian economy was literally in the dumps ! is the situation same now ? I would guess that very similar arguments apply to Brazil, another BRIC country.

FYI, this is the IN’s current plans regarding carriers
# INS Vikramaditya (ex-gorshkov) 44,000 tonnes. 2nd hand but refurbished and modified enough to consider it almost new. when it was ordered, it was the only readily available carrier, price was not that much of a factor. @ $ 2.35 bn, it’s not exactly cheap either. expected commissioning 2012

# INS Vikrant (IAC-1) 40,000 tonnes. currently under construction at CSL. expected commissioning 2015

# IAC-2, 65,000 tonnes expected. possibly nuclear powered. expected commissioning 2020.

considering everything, I don’t think that IN will opt for a CVF even if offered because they are really overpriced at their current prices.

Neither Brazil nor India can afford CVF. Both have have carriers, but their carriers were used and bought very much on the cheap, like much of their equipment.

you mean the CVF is overpriced for the value it brings to the table ?

I don’t know about Brazil but which equipment of the Indian Navy carriers was bought on the cheap ?