St. Petersburg, July 2 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Russia is not going to meet the deadlines in the implementation of a contract on the delivery of missile frigates to the Indian Navy, the state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport said.
Russia and India signed a $1.6 billion contract on construction of three modified Krivak III class (also known as Talwar class) guided missile frigates for India in 2006. The first frigate was scheduled for delivery in April 2011.
‘There is a delay, and it is hard to say now what the new deadline is going to be, although the first ship is undergoing dockside trials,’ said Oleg Azizov, head of Rosoboronexport’s delegation at the IMDS naval show in St. Petersburg.
Russia’s Yantar shipyard, which is building the ships, has asked Rosoboronexport for additional $100 million to finish the construction.
Azizov said an Indian Navy delegation will arrive in Russia next week to negotiate the new deadlines for construction.
This is the second time Russia has run into difficulties with Indian naval contracts. The price of the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier has been raised almost twice, and its delivery date was put back from 2008 to late 2012.
Russia has previously built three Talwar-class frigates for India – INS Talwar (Sword), INS Trishul (Trident), and INS Tabar (Axe).
The new frigates each will be armed with eight BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, jointly developed by Russia and India.
