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16:55 | 29/ 09/ 2008

NEW DELHI, September 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has no plans to export nuclear submarines, the country’s defense minister said on Monday during his visit to India.

Asked to comment on media reports on alleged plans to export nuclear submarines, in particular to India, Anatoly Serdyukov said: “The press discusses lots of things. We do not export nuclear submarines.”

The Times of India earlier quoted an anonymous Indian defense source as saying that under a secret deal signed between Russia and India in January 2004, a 12,000-ton Akula-II class nuclear-powered attack submarine has been built at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur shipyard in Russia.

According to the newspaper, the submarine will be leased to India for 10 years and will be commissioned with the Indian navy as INS Chakra as early as in 2009.

Akula II class vessels are considered the quietest and deadliest among Russian nuclear-powered attack submarines.

According to various reports, India is currently building three domestically designed nuclear submarines under a top-secret Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) program, but needs to give its navy first-hand experience in nuclear submarine operations, deployment and maintenance prior to the deployment of domestic submarines.

“Our sailors… have been undergoing training in Russia to operate the INS Chakra for the last two-three years. Once we get it, it will be the ideal platform to train future crews for the ATVs,” the Indian source said.

The nuclear submarine leased by Russia will not be equipped with long-range cruise missiles due to international restrictions on missile technology proliferation, but India may later opt to fit it with domestically designed long-range nuclear-capable missiles.

At present, India operates 16 conventional diesel submarines and is waiting for six French-Spanish Scorpene class diesel attack submarines, to be delivered between 2012 and 2017, but plans to deploy at least three nuclear submarines armed with long-range strategic missiles by 2015.

The first of the three domestic nuclear submarines is expected to begin sea trials by mid-2009.

India previously leased a Charlie-I class nuclear submarine from the Soviet Union from 1988 to 1991.

Russia recently handed over to India the INS Sindhuvijay diesel-electric submarine after an extensive overhaul at a shipyard in northern Russia.

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Related article:
Russia to build eight nuclear submarines

Russia is to build eight nuclear submarines by 2015 as part of an ambitious plan to overhaul the country’s ailing navy.

By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow
Telegraph
Last Updated: 10:23PM BST 02 Oct 2008

Senior military officials said that the new ships will be equipped with the country’s problem-plagued submarine-launched ballistic missile, the Bulava-30.

Russia is struggling to revamp its dilapidated military structure in order to give substance to an increasingly assertive foreign policy that has seen warships and bombers deployed to the far corners of the world for the first time since the Cold War.

Last week, Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, announced a dramatic rearmament programme that would see the construction of new missile defence system and the mass production of warships and multi-purpose submarines.

Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, also announced that defence spending would increase by 27 per cent next year to £54 billion.

Russia’s navy, perhaps the most decrepit arm of the country’s armed forces, desperately needs modernization. With 50 per cent of the fleet estimated to be in dry docks at anyone time, Russia’s warships have a reputation for frequently breaking down.

Unable to challenge the West’s conventional superiority, Russia has had to rely on its nuclear deterrent. At sea, that has meant developing the Bulava and a fleet of Borei-class nuclear submarines to carry it.

Already three years behind schedule, the Bulava could be launched in 2009, the defence ministry said.

“I hope we’ll accept the Bulava-30 for service next year,” Col-Gen Vladimir Popovkin, a deputy defence minister, said.

Western military experts are not so sure.

The Bulava has only been successfully tested four times, while most new nuclear missiles need at least 12 launches to be officially commissioned.

While Russia’s military boasted of a successful test last month, information that has emerged since suggests that the missile’s warheads failed to separate during the last phase of the launch.

Only one of the submarines meant to carry the missiles is ready. Russia had announced that 12 Borei-class submarines would be launched and it is unclear whether the eight vessels announced yesterday were part of that number.

The Russian navy currently has 14 strategic submarines capable of launching nuclear missiles and 58 non-tactical submarines.

In July, Russia also revealed it would build four or five new aircraft carriers to replace the ramshackle Admiral Kuznetsov, the only vessel of its kind in the fleet. While the announcement was seen as a declaration of the Kremlin’s ambitions, it also raised eyebrows in the West as Russia has no shipyards capable of building such large vessels.

Critics say the best way to better the country’s armed forces is to improve the woeful living standards of its servicemen, most of whom are conscripts, and to tackle corruption. One-third of defence spending is either embezzled or misspent, analysts estimate.