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| India-Pakistan |
| Indian Navy crews to move to Russia to start training on Chakra |
| 2008-11-01 |
| Batches of Indian naval personnel are to shortly leave for the Russia's far eastern port of Vladivostok to train on board the Chakra, (formerly the Nerpa) a Russian Akula-2 nuclear powered attack submarine which is to be transferred to India on a 10-year lease next year. The Nerpa was launched at the Komsomolsk on-Amur shipyard in June this year after which she began harbour trials. Earlier this week, the shipyard announced that the submarine had been shifted out of the shipyard to a maintenance facility in the Primorye territory near Vladivostok for trials in the Sea of Japan. The 12,000 tonne submarine, said to be the quietest and deadliest of Russia's attack submarines, has a crew of 100 personnel is currently being operated by the Russian Navy. The Indian crew, which has already been trained at a facility in Sosnovy Bor and later at the School of Advanced Undersea Warfare in Visakhapatnam, is to board the submarine in small batches based on their specializations. The final acceptance team is slated to leave for Russia in March next year and the submarine is to be handed over to the Indian Navy in July for a likely commissioning date of August 15, 2009. Both India and Russia have publicly denied plans to lease the submarine. Under the secret lease signed in January 2004, India agreed to pay $ 650 million which would go into completing the unfinished hull of the submarine laid down by the Soviet Union in 1991. The Nerpa is being leased for 10 years to rapidly train personnel to man the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) a series of three indigenously built nuclear powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs). The first ATV has been completed and assigned a yet undisclosed name. The submarine is to be launched at the Shipbuilding Centre (SBC) in Visakhapatnam on January 26 next year to begin harbour trials. |
| Posted by:john frum |