Indian Navy to induct Russian-built nuclear submarine
04 Apr 2012
India will become the world's sixth country to operate a nuclear-powered submarine with the induction of the Russian-built Akula class K-152 Nerpa submarine by the Indian Navy to its fleet today.
India now rejoins China, Russia, the US, the UK and France as an operator of underwater nuclear submarines.
Defence minister A K Antony will formally commission the nuclear-powered submarine, now renamed as INS Chakra into the Navy at the Ship Building Complex in Vishapatnam.
The INS Chakra, an advanced model with reduced acoustic signatures, has been leased from Ruasia by Indian Navy for 10 years. It takes its name from the first nuclear submarine ever to serve with the Indian Navy, a Russian Charlie-II class submarine, in the 1980s.
The earlier INS Chakra was a Charlie-class submarine, which was also leased out to the Indian Navy a couple of decades back for training its personnel on such submarines.
The nuclear-powered INS Chakra acquired by India now, sailed from the Russian port of Vladivostok 40 days ago after Russian submariners trained their Indian counterparts to steer the Nerpa in the Pacific Ocean to its base at Visakhapatnam in the Bay of Bengal.