U.S. Navy Personnel Given Access to India's Russian Built Aircraft Carrier INS Vikramaditya; A Blow to Indian-Russian Cooperation?

In an unprecedented move, India's Navy has given members of the United States' Joint Working Group on Aircraft Carrier Cooperation two days of access to the Russian built aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya - formerly the Soviet Union's own formerly Admiral Gorshkov Kiev Class carrier. The Vikramaditya uses technologies also employed on Russia's own carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, and China's carrier the Liaoling - all of which were originally manufactured in the Soviet Union. Access to these carriers is therefore highly desirable for the United States to study their technologies and potentially learn of weaknesses to exploit in the Chinese and Russian operated platforms. The Vikramaditya also operates Russian built MiG-29K fighters, in service in the Russian Navy, which could well also be compromised. The result of this unexpected move by the Indian Navy could well have repercussions for the Russian-Indian defence partnership - particularly if any sensitive technologies on the Vikramaditya are obtained by the U.S. experts.

With India having gained U.S. assistance in installing an electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) onboard the INS Vishal carrier, itself designed as a smaller version of America's newest carrier USS Gerald R Ford, giving the U.S. access to Russian technologies in return could be seen as part of a quid pro quo agreement. This could however make Russia less willing to supply India with advanced military technologies in future should their be a risk they would be compromised, particularly to the Indian Navy which has formed increasingly close ties to the United States. While currently the Indian Air Force has been a far closer partner of Russia than the Navy, Russia may well find itself exercising a greater degree of caution in what technology it provides India's military in general due to the risk of the United States being given access. India's FGFA fighter program based on Russia's Su-57 could well prove an example of a program which may suffer such repercussions due to the breaking of trust between the two parties.