MOSCOW. August 1 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian nuclear-propelled submarine Nerpa will be leased to India before the end of this year, Russian Navy Commander Adm. Vladimir Vysotsky told Interfax-AVN on Sunday.
"There are no major obstacles to the transfer of the submarine to the Indian Navy this year," he said.
The Indian crew received all the due training and the sub is being prepared for transfer trials, he said.
Under a $650 million contract, Russia is renting out the Nerpa to India for a period of ten years.
The Indian Navy was supposed to adopt it back in 2008 under the name of Chakra. However, 20 people died on it in November 2008 when the fire-extinguishing system turned on automatically during the testing period, which led to the revision of the time of its transfer to the Indian navy.
After the successful completion of official tests, the Nerpa was adopted by the Russian Navy at the end of last year.
The Nerpa nuclear submarine of Project 971 (Shchuka-B, Akula according to NATO classification) is a third generation submarine. It is armed with torpedoes, rocket-launched torpedoes and Grant cruise missiles with a range of 3,000 kilometers. The submarine has a deadweight of 8.14/12.77 thousand tonnes, a maximum speed of 30 knots, a maximum submersion depth of 600 meters, an endurance of 100 days and a crew of 73. A total of 15 submarines of the project have been built since 1984.