Thursday, Oct 14, 2004
Russia building nuclear submarines for India
By Vladimir Radyuhin
MOSCOW, OCT. 13. Russia is building two nuclear submarines for the Indian Navy, a leading business daily here reported.
The construction of two unfinished nuclear submarines of Project 971 resumed this month at the Amur Shipyards in Komsomolsk-on-the-Amur, the Kommersant newspaper said. The building of the submarines was suspended several years ago due to lack of funds.
Under an agreement with Russia, India will lease the two submarines and will provide money to enable the Amur Shipyards to complete their construction. According to the report, India has already made an advance payment of $100 million on the contract worth $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion. Even though there are no international restrictions on the sale of nuclear submarines to India, the Defence Ministers emphatically denied they had as much as discussed the deal during their meeting in Delhi in January.
Improved version
The Project 971 improved version of Akula-II class submarine is a far more formidable man of war than a Charlie-class nuclear submarine India leased from Russia in 1988-1991.
Akula-II is the most advanced Russian nuclear attack submarine that is comparable to the U.S. Sea Wolf and modernised Los Angeles-class submarines. It features an Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) which enables the 12,770-tonne vessel to remain underwater for three months.
The Russian Navy's Project 971 submarines are equipped with 28 cruise missiles each armed with nuclear or conventional warheads with a striking range of 3,000 km.
However, the Indian version is expected to be armed with the 300-km Club nuclear-capable missiles already installed on the Krivak-class frigates and Kilo-class diesel submarines Russia has built for India.
Experts said the two submarines would strengthen India's naval might and advance India's indigenous nuclear submarine programme.
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