Russia’s K-152 Nerpa nuclear-powered attack submarine has been handed over to the Indian Navy.
In line with the contract worth over $900 million, the Project 971
Shchuka-B (NATO: Akula II) class sub has been leased to India’s Navy for
ten years. It will be renamed the INS Chakra.
The ceremony took place in the Far Eastern Primorye Territory.
Russian submariners trained their Indian colleagues to steer the Nerpa
in the Pacific Ocean.
The event was attended by Indian ambassador to Russia Ajai Malhotra,
United Shipbuilding Corporation head Roman Trotsenko, Eastern Military
District commander Admiral Konstantin Sidenko and other officials.
The submarine’s displacement is 8,140/12,770 tons. Its maximum speed
is 30 knots, maximum operating depth, 600 m; its endurance is 100 days
with a crew of 73. The vessel is armed with four 533mm torpedo tubes and
four 650mm torpedo tubes.
India has become the sixth operator of nuclear submarines in the
world, after the United States, Russia, France, Britain and China,
though it previously leased another Russian submarine which was then
returned.
Twenty sailors died on the Nerpa in 2008 after the vessel’s fire-suppression systems were accidentally triggered during sea trials, releasing toxic gases.
http://en.rian.ru/
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