Saturday, September 29, 2012

Well That's an Interesting Little Twist

India is annoyed with Russia that the carrier that Russia has sold to India has been delayed for years. China just officially put their Russian-built carrier into service (but it is not operational), making the issue of getting that carrier into Indian waters more important. Who caused the latest delay?

Russia blames China for the latest delay in getting the engines working after India prohibited the use of asbestos for boiler heat shields:

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.

China denies selling any firebricks for the project.

So was this corruption, incompetence, or sabotage?

And was it Russian, Chinese, or Indian?