On Oct. 14, the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning (formerly the Kuznetsov-class Varyag) blew out a component of the steam engines, temporarily cutting off all power to the ship. The Indian Vikramaditya (ex Kiev-class) has had repeated engine failures, including on its first trip to India. They might have known what to expect by studying the history of Russia's only remaining carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov. On the rare occasion it leaves port, it brings along a towboat. It doesn't have heat, ventilation, bathrooms, or aircraft. No Russian sailor wants to serve there. https://medium.com/war-is-boring/ch...e-spewing-steam-and-losing-power-29dae6cd9fdf
During the Cold War it was discovered years later that the Russians couldn't even produce in quantity, lightbulbs. Decades on and this report on the combat effectiveness of their Aircraft carrier speaks of this odd way of being for such powerful culture.
India should have previously realized this: http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htatrit/20131215.aspx "Since the 1960s India bought nearly a thousand MiG combat aircraft. Nearly 90 percent (872) were MiG-21s and 55 percent (482 aircraft) of these were lost in action (mainly accidents) along with 171 pilots. The other ones, swing-wing MiG-23s were more modern but not much more reliable. While India was something of an extreme case in this area (other users don't fly their MiGs as much), it's been typical of MiG aircraft."
India must have read your posts. India is the world’s largest arms importer. It aims to be a big weapons dealer, too. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world...839bc9-2627-4a41-a4d6-b376e0f860ea_story.html
The problem with India being a weapons exporter is that they can't build anything. Countless times they start on projects and then restart from scratch when the costs rise and the technological hurdles are too much for their industry to surmount. For example, the radar and the Kaveri engine for the Tejas fighter (itself long delayed) still are not working and the engine project may be abandoned altogether. Their light helicopter project is still on the drawing board and is incredibly late. The Trishul anti-aircraft missile was a quarter-century long mess leading to nothing. The Sitara primary jet trainer has design problems that probably can't be fixed. The Indian defense procurement and defense industry is beset by bureaucracy and a failure-averse culture that spawns endless delays. They can't even buy foreign weapons properly (like the 155mm artillery projects or much needed ship-borne helicopters).
India is now pushing to get US Aircraft Carrier tech. http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/02/04/india-usa-aircraftcarrier-idINKBN0L80U520150204
Russia sent the Admiral Kuznetsov to Syria as a show of force. Well, the aircraft that were on the carrier are now on land bases, as the barely-classified-as-carrier Admiral Kuznetsov proved inadequate to the task of launching strikes. Their method of launching aircraft means their payload and range are extremely limited, and breakdowns on the ship limited sorties and lead to the destruction of a fighter that couldn't land because the arresting gear was broken at the time.
And Russia just lost another fighter because of failure in the arresting gear on the the Admiral Kuznetsov. Fortunately the pilot survived. https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...353be8-bad8-11e6-817f-e3b588251d1e_story.html
In defense of Russian MIGs, the Indians and Pakistanis had a tendency of shooting down their own airplanes during their wars.