The carrier entered into service in Originally built as Baku and commissioned in , the carrier served with the Soviet Navy and later with the Russian Navy as Admiral Gorshkov before being decommissioned in She was commissioned on 16 November at a ceremony held at Severodvinsk , Russia. Baku entered service in , renamed Admiral Gorshkov in , but was deactivated in because she was too expensive to operate on a post-Cold War budget.
This attracted the attention of India, which was looking for a way to expand its carrier aviation capabilities. The navy looked at equipping the carrier with the E-2C Hawkeye , but decided not to. Facilities and procedures for training pilots and technical staff, delivery of simulators, spare parts, and establishment maintenance on Indian Navy facilities were also part of the contract.
While Viraat' s retirement had been pushed out to —, [ 33 ] she underwent a final refit, enabling her to serve through The delay issues were compounded by ongoing cost overruns, leading to high-level diplomatic exchanges. Also, the indigenous Vikrant -class aircraft carrier was delayed by at least a year and was expected to be commissioned in from the proposed However, Russia threatened to cancel the deal entirely if India did not pay the increased amount.
Also, a risk existed of further delay in its delivery. If you can, I am going to sign a cheque right now". When asked about CAG's finding that the navy had not done its risk analysis before going in for the ship, he was quoted as saying, "I can ensure you that there is no such thing. There is no question, we have been looking at the ship since the late '90s. On 7 December , Russian sources indicated that final terms had been agreed on, but no delivery date was set.
In April , a scandal over the project emerged when it was announced that a senior Indian Navy officer had probably been blackmailed to influence the negotiations over the cost of Admiral Gorshkov to India. Several photos were later leaked to the Indian press. He was discharged from service due to this incident. The hull work was completed by , [ 46 ] and Vikramaditya was launched on 4 December Nearly all of the large equipment, including engines and diesel generators, was installed.
