Soviet Union 1991

(Third update, here I go, I’m so stupid, I forgot to post the chapters I had already coded at 6 o’clock this morning!)

As expected, the delegation of the Ministry of National Defense who took back the benefits immediately became loyal "communist spies" of the Soviet Union. As if they were enemies of the Ministry of Defense, they stated the importance of purchasing the Gorshkov to Indian Defense Minister Kapoor and proposed Such as "The Indian Navy is not strong, it must have the Kiev class", "The price of aircraft carriers in the world has increased, and we have the Kiev class, and we can save a lot of cost! There is nothing that a Kiev class aircraft carrier cannot handle, if there is , then two ships” and other slogans. And he pretended that as long as there was an improved version of the Gorshkov, no one would dare to speak out if the Indian Navy was walking sideways in the Indian Ocean.

After referring to the plan provided by the Soviet Union, Defense Minister Kapoor also believed that buying a functionally upgraded version of the Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier for less than the Kiev-class aircraft carrier was a good deal, although now Purchasing the Gorshkov seems a bit redundant, but for the Indian Navy without a backup aircraft carrier, it seems a bit dangerous. Without aircraft carriers, can we still be called the hegemon of the Indian Ocean? Can you still realize your dream of becoming a great country? Go ahead and dream.

After being said to be tempted, Kapoor also sent Prakash as a negotiator for the defense department just like last time, but this time he stayed behind the scenes and did not go to Moscow. Perhaps the previous hangover left him frightened, so this time he just pushed Prakash into the fire pit.

This time the Soviet Navy did not dare to neglect. They did not prepare vodka to torture these poor Hindus, because compared with hundreds of dollars of vodka, the billion-dollar contract was the most important.

The representative sent by the Navy is General Sergeyev. As the father of the Kiev-class aircraft carrier who has watched it grow in his own hands and dominate the four oceans, no one knows the Kiev-class better than him. He is also an eloquent person. A general. To him, the Indians' verbal quarrels were like the unreasonable noises of a three-year-old child.

So when this naval admiral, whose military uniform was covered with medals, sat down at the negotiating table, his majestic aura instantly overawed the chatting and laughing representatives of the Indian Ministry of Defense.

"This is the Kiev-class aircraft carrier modification plan we provided. I believe everyone here has seen it." General Sergeyev looked around the somewhat silent Indian delegation across the negotiation table and said in a calm tone, "We The price of selling the aircraft carrier and the cost of modernization are also listed later. Please browse them by yourself. If there are no problems, we can skip the negotiation chapter and go directly to signing the contract. "

The Indians took a breath. The Russians spoke directly and even omitted bargaining. Just take it upon yourself to say that the negotiation is over.

Then the Indian delegation turned to the last page of the densely packed plan. When their eyes saw the sale price of the Kiev-class aircraft carrier Gorshkov for US$500 million, it was as if they had picked up a big bargain. They were secretly surprised, but when they moved their eyes down a line and saw the quotation for modern-level modifications, their hearts instantly became cold.

$1.56 billion!

They rubbed their eyes to make sure they saw it correctly, then lowered their heads and looked again. It was indeed 1.56 billion US dollars, not rubles. That's a real $1.56 billion. Prakash raised his head and asked with a somewhat pale face, "Are we wrong? General Sergeyev, the renovation of this Kiev-class aircraft carrier costs 1.56 billion US dollars? This... why is this so expensive? It's just a modification That’s it?”

Prakash's words completely revealed that he was a layman on aircraft carriers. When the translator translated the words of the Indian delegation to Sergeyev, he just smiled and asked, " With all due respect, Staff Officer Prakash, do you know what a huge project it is to widen the deck and add a ski jump deck on a Kiev-class ship?”

"This is not as simple as laying a railway in India. The transformation almost requires modifying the structure of the entire aircraft carrier. The deck is the soul of the aircraft carrier. Changing one part is changing all projects. So US$1.56 billion is already our conscience price. If you think it's expensive If so, I suggest you go to the United States or the United Kingdom to buy their decommissioned aircraft carriers. Of course, I believe you will never be able to buy them without more than 2 billion U.S. dollars. So do you think you should spend 2.06 billion U.S. dollars to buy a Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier? Is it still an expensive thing?”

Indeed, the construction cost of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier alone is close to US$2 billion, including other expenses. It is no exaggeration to be known as the gold-swallowing monster.

There is a gap only when there is comparison. Prakash thought about it carefully and realized that it was true. And even if India goes to buy their modern-class aircraft carriers from the United States or the United Kingdom, they may not be willing to sell them. When the Indian aircraft carriers are facing retirement and the navy's combat effectiveness is insufficient, this Kuznetsov-class ship will become particularly important.

"But the price is still too expensive, and we can't afford it." Prakash complained to Sergeyev. The Ministry of Defense did not expect that it would cost 2.06 billion U.S. dollars to get everything done. They thought it would only cost ten 100 million can handle all projects and bring this aircraft carrier home.

"Perhaps you can save the funds for leasing Soviet nuclear submarines and vigorously develop aircraft carriers. Wouldn't that make money?" Sergeyev said lightly, "But we can't guarantee whether we will lease nuclear submarines again in the future. Here it is, so you can watch this business."

In 1985, the Soviet Union agreed to lease the Type 670 cruise missile nuclear submarine Chakra to India. During the three-year lease, India not only trained the first batch of nuclear submarine officers and soldiers, but also the engineers conducted a comprehensive study of the submarine except for the power compartment, and obtained a large amount of information on the development of nuclear submarines, which effectively promoted the development of India's domestic nuclear submarines. If the Soviet Union cut off the lease of nuclear submarines at this time, it would undoubtedly cut off the Indian Navy's subsequent nuclear submarine development plan. India can certainly lease nuclear submarines from the United States, but this means that the previous research work needs to be started again.

Faced with the naked threat of the Soviet Union, the Indian side was obviously hesitant. He thought for a long time before saying, "I can't make a decision on my own. I need to report this news to the Ministry of Defense."

"Okay." Sergeyev made a gesture of invitation to Prakash, "But in terms of refitting, our price is not without a way out, and we can save you $100 million in debugging funds. Doing so means that the modified Kiev-class aircraft carrier needs to be debugged by you."

Prakash's eyes flashed a glimmer of surprise, but it was fleeting and was well concealed by him. He nodded to Sergeyev and replied, "I will report this to the Ministry of Defense."

"Then I am looking forward to the good news." Sergeyev said, he stood up to see the Indian delegation out of the conference hall, and arranged a car to take them back to the hotel where they were staying to prepare for the next round of negotiations.

Yazov, who had been hiding behind the scenes, only appeared at this time. He was also very concerned about the sale of the aircraft carrier this time, so he came to ask Sergeyev how the Indian delegation reacted.

Sergeyev just said silently, "He will definitely agree to my request, because the Indian delegation has no choice. Now, apart from us, which country is willing to sell the aircraft carrier? Is the United States willing to sell the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier? Even if it is willing, can India afford it? And India has to consider its relationship with us. After all, changing the seller at will may lead to a series of subsequent cooperation abortions."

Sergeyev analyzed the Indian Navy very well, because he saw that they did not dare to change their plans at will, so he could always bully the poor Indians in terms of price.

"Then I'll trouble Comrade Sergeyev." Seeing that the other party was so confident in this deal, Prakash was relieved.

"And the Indian delegation went back to discuss it just to ask the people of the Ministry of Defense for money. Anyway, this aircraft carrier was paid by the country and has nothing to do with them. They just need to complete this task. As for the national burden caused by this aircraft carrier, I think they will definitely not take it to heart."

Comrade Yazov sighed, "Since the other party is so generous, we don't need to be hesitant with them on the price. The general secretary is right, 'kindness to Indians is cruelty to our military industry'." (To be continued.)