Russia will not be able to deliver the refitted aircraft carrier Gorshokov next year as scheduled. The delivery has now been pushed to 2010 and it's going to cost $113 million extra. ...
The Navy's only other carrier the Viraat was due to be retired from service in 2012.
If the Indian navy wants to engage the PLAN in the South China Sea rather than the Bay of Bengal if it should come to a shooting war, this is a capability that India must have.
While building up their own naval strength is a good idea, the Indians might want to address the balance from the other side of the equation. The Indians should work on the Russians to stop them from selling so much naval hardware to the Chinese. With a huge mountain range between them and China and efforts to settle that border, the Indians would be better off with a China focused inward to Asia than to the sea. We would too, of course.
