Russia hands over Nerpa nuclear attack submarine to India at $920 mn deal - The Economic Times
Russia has handed over the much- awaited nuclear-powered attack submarine Nerpa to India on a 10-year lease, boosting the Indian navy's fire-power.
The Akula-II class Nerpa nuclear submarine had recently finished sea trials.
"The signing ceremony happened yesterday at the Bolshoi Kamen ship building facility in the (Far East) Primorye region where the Nerpa is now based," ITAR-TASS news agency quoted a senior Russian navy official as saying.
The deal for the submarine, which is being transferred on a 10-year lease, was worth USD 920 million. The report said an Indian crew would sail the Akula II class craft to its home base at the end of January. "All of the naval tests and performance checks have been completed," the Russian navy official said.
The submarine, capable of remaining underwater for months, will be rechristened as 'INS Chakra' and it would be for the first time in more than two decades that the Indian navy would have a nuclear attack submarine.
When Russia makes the delivery, it will make India only the sixth operator of nuclear submarines in the world. The submarine deal had figured during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Russia earlier this month.
The Nerpa, an Akula II-class attack submarine, had originally been scheduled for delivery in 2008 but an accident during sea trials on November 8 that year had forced the Russian authorities to put it on hold.
Twenty people, mostly civilians, had been killed when a fire-suppressant gas was released on the Nerpa during shakedown trials, in one of Russia's worst naval accidents.
The Akula-II class submarines are equipped with 28 nuclear-capable cruise missiles with a striking range of 3,000 km. The Indian version is reportedly expected to be armed with the 300-km Club nuclear-capable missiles.
India had funded the completion of the Nerpa nuclear submarine at Amur Shipyard before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
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Russia hands over Nerpa nuclear sub to India - Emirates 24/7
Russia has handed over the nuclear-powered attack submarine Nerpa to India at a ceremony that followed more than two years of delays, a source in the naval chief of staff told ITAR-TASS on Friday.
"The signing ceremony happened yesterday at the Bolshoi Kamen ship building facility in the (Far East) Primorye region where the Nerpa is now based," the senior navy official said, adding that it was being transferred on a 10-year lease.
The report said an Indian crew would sail the Akula II class craft to its home base at the end of January.
"All of the naval tests and performance checks have been completed," the Russian navy official said.
"The crew will begin making themselves feel at home on board the craft after New Year and start sailing it to India in the latter half of January," the official said.
The reported ceremony was held the same day that a shipyard fire on the opposite side of Russia in the Murmansk regional engulfed the Northern Fleet's Yekaterinburg nuclear-powered strategic submarine.
The Nerpa had initially been due to be handed over to India in 2009 but experienced various problems during testing.
It suffered a mishap during trials in the Sea of Japan in November 2008 that killed 20 sailors when a fire extinguisher released a deadly chemical that was accidentally loaded into the system.
Later reports said some of the ship's equipment malfunctioned during testing and that the weapons navigation system did not work to India's specifications.
The 8,140-tonne vessel can fire a range of torpedoes as well as Granat cruise missiles that can be nuclear-tipped. It is due to be commissioned by India after many delays within the coming months.
Russia supplies 70 percent of India's military hardware but New Delhi has been unhappy about delays to arms orders from Moscow and looked to other suppliers including Israel and the United States in recent years.