India, Russia sign $3 billion deal for nuclear submarine 

INS Chakra.

New Delhi: In yet another big-ticket defence deal, India, on Thursday, has signed a $3 billion deal with Russia for the lease of nuclear-powered attack submarine that would be delivered to the Indian Navy by 2025. The deal has been signed despite the threat of the US financial sanctions over the deal for Russian S-400 Triumf missile-defence system, which was signed in last October during the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to New Delhi.

The new submarine will replace the INS Chakra that was taken on a 10-year lease from Russia, in 2012, under a $900 million deal. The submarine is currently deployed in the Eastern Fleet with the Eastern Naval Command. The lease period for the new submarine is not yet declared.

According to media reports, the contract includes sustenance and spare support for 10 years, training and technical infrastructure for its operations and refurbishment of the nuclear boat, which is currently lying mothballed at Russia’s Severodvinsk. The lease period for the INS Chakra is expected to get extended until the new submarine joins the fleet.

The reports quoted a government source as saying, “INS Chakra’s existing lease will be extended till at least 2025 through another contract till the new submarine, which will be bigger and more advanced than it, becomes operational.”

The INS Arihant, an indigenously built nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarine (SSBN), is in the service since 2016. Two more nuclear submarines are under construction in India besides the INS Arighat, which was launched recently in 2017.

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