India step closer to getting N-sub
DELHI: India got closer to deploying a nuclear-powered submarine by mid-2010 after the Russian Navy formally inducted the Akula-II class attack The over 12,000-tonne Nerpa is to be leased to Indian Navy for a 10-year period under a secret contract inked between India and Russia, along with the $1.5 billion package deal for refit of aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov and 16 MiG-29K fighters in January 2004.
Incidentally, the bitter wrangling over huge cost escalation in Gorshkov's refit has also been virtually settled now, with India agreeing to shell out around $2.5 billion instead of the earlier $974 million earmarked for it.
The Nerpa saga, too, has been quite chequered. Though Nerpa's construction at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur shipyard in Russia began way back in the early 1990s, it was derailed by the financial crisis after Soviet Union's collapse.
India then deftly stepped in to fund Nerpa's construction with an initial $650 million in lieu of Russia's promise it would be handed over for the 10-year lease.
Then, just as Nerpa was beginning its sea trials in November 2008, 20 sailors and technicians were killed on it due to a toxic gas leak. Even as the repairs were underway, a top Russian official said Nerpa would not be leased to India.
But defence ministry sources here on Monday seemed quite confident that Nerpa -- to be christened INS Chakra -- would now join Indian Navy by March-April next year. India, in fact, is even keen to lease a second Akula-II class submarine at a later stage.
Nerpa, of course, will not come armed with `strategic weapons' like the 3,200-km range Granit nuclear-capable cruise missiles due to international treaties like the Missile Technology Control Regime.
Instead, it's likely to have the 300-km range Klub-S land-attack cruise missiles, which India already deploys on its Kilo-class conventional submarines. "With its long endurance and stealthy nature, Nerpa will be a very potent hunter of enemy submarines,'' said a source.
Navy, of course, will also use Nerpa to train its sailors in the intricate art of maintaining and operating nuclear-powered submarines. India, as reported earlier, is forging ahead in constructing its own nuclear submarines after the first, the over 6,000-tonne INS Arihant, was `launched' on July 26 this year under the ATV (advanced technology vessel) programme.
Acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines armed with nuclear-tipped missiles is critical for India to fulfil its long-standing quest to have a viable nuclear weapon triad -- the capability to fire nukes from the air, land and sea.
The hard-to-detect underwater leg of the nuclear triad is, after all, considered the most lethal, survivable and effective platform for launching retaliatory strikes, especially for a country like India which has a "no first-use'' nuclear doctrine.
Incidentally, India had leased a `Charlie-I' class Russian nuclear submarine from 1988 to 1991 to give its Navy first-hand experience in nuclear submarine operations. That submarine, too, had been named INS Chakra but the expertise gained was steadily lost since India did not operate any other nuclear submarine thereafter.
India already has the `Agni' family of road and rail-mobile ballistic missiles as well as fighter jets like Mirage-2000s and Sukhoi-30MKIs jury-rigged to deliver nuclear weapons. But the aim to add an underwater component to the nuclear deterrent has become clear on the horizon only now.
India step closer to getting N-sub - India - The Times of India