24.1.12

INS Chakra



India’s long hunt for a nuclear submarine is finally over. But it will take the country another 10-12 months to get an operational nuclear weapon triad — the capability to fire nukes from land, air and sea. India on Monday became the world’s sixth country after the US, Russia, France, the UK and China to operate nuclearpowered submarines when the Russian Akula-II class submarine ‘K-152 Nerpa’ was commissioned into Indian Navy as INS Chakra on a 10-year lease under a secretive, almost $1-billion contract inked in 2004. “It will be deadly ‘hunterkiller’ of enemy submarines and warships, as also provide effective protection to a fleet at sea. It can also provide cover to the nuclear-armed INS Arihant if required. With a dived speed of 30-35 knots, INS Chakra will be able to outrun any current Pakistani or Chinese submarine,” said a source. The 8,140-tonne INS Chakra, however, is not armed with long-range nuclear missiles such as the Russian SS-N-21 cruise missiles with an over 2,500-km range due to international non-proliferation treaties. The Indian nuclear triad’s elusive underwater leg will only be complete when the home-grown nuclear submarine, the over 6,000-tonne INS Arihant equipped to carry a dozen K-15 (750-km) or four K-4 (3,500-km) ballistic missiles, becomes fully operational by early-2013. India has the land and air legs in the shape of the Agni series of missiles and fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Defence ministry sources said INS Chakra, commissioned at the Primorye region in far south-eastern Russia in aceremony attended by top Indian and Russian officials, would soon set sail for India. It will be based at Visakhapatnam, where INS Arihant is slated to begin extensive sea trials in February-March after the ongoing harbour-acceptance trials. Though it may not add to India’s nuclear deterrence posture, INS Chakra will give some much-needed muscle to India’s depleting underwater combat arm, which has only 14 ageing conventional submarines to brandish. India is in talks for the lease of another Akula-II class submarine from Russia, say sources. Nuclear-powered submarines are stealthy since they can operate underwater at long ranges for months unlike diesel-electric submarines that need to surface every few days to get oxygen to recharge their batteries and have limited endurance due to fuel requirements. INS Chakra will be armed with the 300-km range Klub-S land-attack cruise missiles, which India deploys on its Kilo-class conventional submarines. The Navy will also use INS Chakra to train sailors in the complex art of operating nuclear submarines. The ‘Charlie-I’ class N-submarine India had leased from Russia from 1988 to 1991 was also named INS Chakra but the expertise gained on it was lost since the Navy did not operate any nuclear submarine thereafter.

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