Thaindian News

New Delhi, Dec 15 (IANS) India is all set to add teeth to its submarine fleet when a potent silent-killer in the form of a leased Russian nuclear-powered vessel sets sail for India from Russia later this month with an all-Indian crew, highly placed government sources said here Friday.

The Nerpa submarine, with long endurance levels to lurk underwater for months together without having to surface and lurk in the deep seas for it prey, is a weapon platform that will be leased by Russia to India for 10 years beginning this month.

“The leased Russian submarine will set sail by the end of this year,” the sources said.

The confirmation of India getting the Nerpa K-152 submarine, with NATO codename Akula-II, to its naval fleet came even as Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is Moscow Friday ahead of a bilateral summit with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Saturday.

Contrary to expectations of India operating two Russian-origin vessels, the sources also noted that India would get only one nuclear submarine on lease from Russia, as it is building three of its own such vessels in Visakhapatnam.

The Nerpa will be formally inducted into the Indian Navy before March 2012, but it will reach Indian shores by the end of January 2012.

The Nerpa, when it arrives in India, will be the first nuclear-powered submarine that Indian Navy will operate in two decades. It is likely to be christened INS Chakra.

India’s first-ever nuclear-powered submarine was also leased from Russia (then the Soviet Union) for a three-year period in 1987 and the Charlie class submarine operated with the Indian Navy as INS Chakra till 1991.

India and Russia had signed an agreement on Nerpa’s lease in the middle of the last decade. Indian submariners are already in Russia and have taken control of the vessel’s operations.

The vessel that was to be inducted in 2009, but got delayed by two years due to an on board explosion in November 2008 soon after it was sailed out by Russian Navy sailors for sea trials in the Western Pacific killing 20-odd personnel.

The 10-year lease of the vessel will cost India about $900 million. But Indian Navy intends to put the submarine to good use to learn the tricks of the trade of operating a nuclear powered platform in preparation for its indigenous vessel, INS Arihant, which will go for sea trial in the first half of 2012 ahead of it induction by the end of that year.

India at present has conventional diesel-electric submarine fleet comprising 10 Russian-origin Kilo class and four German HDW submarines.

Apart from Arihant, India intends to build two more indigenous nuclear submarines of the same class, all with help from Russia for miniaturized nuclear reactors for these vessels.