India to get Russian nuclear submarine after 17 yr wait

India to get Russian nuclear submarine after 17 yr wait Moscow, July 4: India will get its first Akula class Russian nuclear submarine in 2009, equipping its navy with the quietest and lethal underwater war machine after a gap of 17 years to enhance its blue water capabilities. Factory trials of the multi-role nuclear submarine, christened INS Chakra which India-will get on a 10-year-lease, commenced on June 11 at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur shipyard and will be followed by sea trials, Russian defence sources said, adding it will be delivered by September 2009. According to experts, Chakra would help India fill the void caused by the delays in the indigenous Advanced Technology Vessel project to build a nuclear powered, guided missile attack submarine. Three Indian naval crews for the nuclear submarine have already been trained at the specially set up training centre in Sosnovy Bor near St. Petersburg. This facility would also be used for training crews for the Indian nuclear submarines of ATV project currently in the advanced stages of development, sources said. Though they said that India has financed the completion of construction of submarine of project 971 "Shchuka B"(NATO codename Akula) under the USD 650 million deal signed in 2004 as part of the larger Gorshkov package, they did not reveal the cost of the lease of Chakra. Akula (Shark) is the quietest Russian attack submarine and Chakra has been christened after its predecessor leased by the Indian Navy in 1988 from the erstwhile USSR. In January 1988, ex-USSR had leased K-43 nuclear submarine of project 670 (NATO codename Charlie) which was with the Indian Navy as INS Chakra till March 1991, when under the intense US pressure beleaguered Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev had refused to extend the lease.