“The Navy line is that the government should not get into price renegotiation at all. If today we reopen Gorshkov, tomorrow all our projects with Russia can be opened for renegotiation,” Mehta told reporters ahead of Navy Day celebrations.

Maintaining that Moscow should honour the original price contract signed in 2004, Mehta said penalty clauses will be implemented by India in case of any delay in the project. “There will be a lot of additions and subtractions and in the end, I personally don’t think we will be paying much more, if at all anything, extra,” he said.

He blamed the Gorshkov delay on Russia, saying the country reduced the project manpower once its shipyards got more business after modernising “with our money”.

“Over the years, with our money, a lot of prosperity has come to their shipyards. Now the shipyards have got more work and the workforce on Gorshkov has gone down,” said Mehta who is also Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee. In 2004, Russia gave India the carrier for free as its shipyards were desperate for some work, he said.

“The sudden oil boom too has brought about a lot of prosperity, enabling the Russians to launch new warships and submarines, diverting the workforce,” he said.

Reports from Moscow indicate that the workforce on the Gorshkov project at the Sevmash shipyard has been shifted to a new nuclear submarine project for the Russian Navy. The nuclear submarine, coming up in the adjacent dock where the Gorshkov is being refurbished, is part of Russia’s efforts to revitalise its military strength.

The Navy chief also built a case for reducing dependency on Russia for military equipment given the changing global scenario, saying there has been a “conscious thought” to not put “all our eggs in one basket”.

He said that recent developments have changed the India-Russia equation and in the future, Russia would be treated like any other Defence manufacturing country. “Our current Defence Procurement Policy (DPP) has clearly brought out that there is need for a multi-vendor situation for all procurements. In this case, the lowest bidder gets the contract. This is also how we will deal with acquisitions, with Russia in future,” he said.

He, however, made it clear there would be no going back on the Gorshkov deal. “We have put in $500 million into the project already. We own the ship¿ If they put enough manpower on the ship today, it will take two years plus to complete the work. We would see the ship by early 2011 or late 2010,” he said.

He ruled out the acquisition of the USS Kitty Hawk, the conventionally powered US carrier due to retire next year, saying that it was a “1960s platform”.

Listing problem areas with Russia when it comes to Defence acquisitions, Mehta said that the inability to deal directly with the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) is a major concern that leads to confusion and delays. Currently, all Defence projects of Russia are handled by the central Rosboronexport Company.

Indigenous n-sub launch by 2009

NEW DELHI: India is set to launch its first indigenous nuclear submarine by 2009 as part of its nuclear triad for minimum credible deterrence, said Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta.

India will also lease a nuclear-powered Akula class submarine from Russia within the next two years to train its personnel on nuclear platforms, he said.