Russia to Lease Two Nuclear Submarines to India

Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov has announced that Russia plans to lease two nuclear submarines to India. The statement was made during his visit to the Amurskiy Shipyard [see map] in the Russian Far East in late January 2002. The shipyard is constructing the first submarine India would lease -- the Nerpa, a Shchuka B-class [NATO name 'Akula II'] nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN). [See Shchuka B-Class SSN Stats.] The second submarine, the Kuguar, is being constructed in the Far North at the Sevmash facility in Severodvinsk. India will provide Russia with financing to complete construction of the two SSNs, while Russia will train four Indian submarine crews and provide India with the submarines for five years, beginning in 2004. The leased submarines are expected to be armed with Club-S missiles [NATO name SS-NX-27 'Alfa'].[1] These missiles can be outfitted with supersonic 3M-54E or subsonic 3M-54EI antiship missiles, 3M-14E land attack cruise missiles or 91RE1 antisubmarine torpedoes. The 3M-54E and 3M-14E missiles can carry a warhead of up to 400 kg and have a range of about 300 km.[2] UPI quotes Russia's Rosoboronexport arms sales agency as saying that construction of the submarines will resume when India makes the first $100 million payment.[3] According to Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, during the last four years India and Russia have signed military contracts worth $10 billion.[4] The submarine lease may open the door to sales of nuclear submarines and highly enriched uranium fuel for the submarine's reactors. Although no country has ever sold a nuclear submarine, such sales are allowed under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) because the treaty does not restrict naval propulsion reactors.[5]

Sources:
[1] Vladimir Urban, "'Nerpa' vsplyvet po komande khindi," Novyye Izvestiya, 26 January 2002; in Universal Database of Central Russian Newspapers, http://www.eastview.com.
[2] "3M-54 Klub SS-N-27," Federation of American Scientists Web Site, http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/missile/row/club.htm; "Klub (SS-N-27) ASCM," Bharat Rakshak Web Site, http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/NAVY/Klub.html.
[3] United Press International, http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=28012002-125101-1149r, 28 January 2002.
[4] "Glava MID Indii zayavlyayet o namerenii uglublyat voyenno-tekhnicheskoye sotrudnichestvo s Rossiyey," Agenstvo Voyennykh Novostey, 25 January 2002; in Universal Database of Russian Military and Security Periodicals, http://www.eastview.com.
[5] James Clay Moltz, "Closing the NPT Loophole on Exports of Naval Propulsion Reactors," The Nonproliferation Review, Fall 1998, http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/npr/pdfs/cmoltz61.pdf.

[ 12 Nov, 2006 1555hrs ISThttp://images.photogallery.indiatimes.com/images/spacer.gif" border="0" width="3">PTI ]

October 27, 2004 :: News

India today tested a naval variant of a nuclear capable ballistic missile with a range of 300km. The missile tested has been identified by news sources as a “Prithvi III,” and is said to be the longest range Prithvi tested thus far.

        The missile’s characteristics, however, seem to indicate that it is more likely the missile known as the Dhanush, which itself had been derived from the Prithvi II. The missile launched today is said to have previously been launched from a ship, which is also true of the Dhanush.

        The missile is also said to have the capability to be launched from a submarine. Today’s launch reportedly took place from a specially constructed underwater platform and canister, from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, in the eastern coast state of Orissa, some 230km from the city of Bhubaneswar. The missile landed in the Bay of Bengal.

        Indian and Western news services variously report that the missile consists of a single stage, and the missile reportedly has a length of 8.5 meters (28 ft) and a diameter of 1 meter. While it is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead?described by some reports as “sub kiloton”?it may also carry incendiary or fragmentary munitions. Each of these dimensions and capabilities roughly correspond to those previously assigned to the Dhanush missile. The dimensions of the missile called the “Prithvi III” are not known. The missile may indeed never have been completed.

        It would appear that India may have applied the signification Prithvi III to the missile previously termed Dhanush, or that the news reports are simply inaccurate.

        That the missile tested is in fact the Dhanush is also suggested by an October 9 report by India’s The Statesman, that such a test was planned.