After nearly 10 years of negotiations, India and Russia have reportedly signed a $2-billion deal for the lease of another SSN from Russia for a 10-year period, NDTV reports, quoting sources.
(According to PIB, no new contract has been signed. The submarine is being leased under a contract signed in March 2019. There has been a delay in the delivery and the new delivery is scheduled for 2028.)
The lease terms stipulate that the submarine can only be used to train Indian Navy (IN) sailors to operate SSNs currently under development in India.
India had earlier leased the Akula-class submarine Nerpa for 10 years. The lease began on December 29, 2011, at the Bolshoi Kamen shipbuilding facility in the Primorye region (Far East), where the Nerpa was based. The boat was commissioned into the Indian Navy as INS Chakra in April 2012.
The submarine met with an accident in October 2017, when its sonar dome was damaged while entering harbour in Visakhapatnam.
Russian specialists fabricated replacement panels at their facility in Russia and brought them to Visakhapatnam for installation on the leased boat.
In 2019, India considered extending the lease but opted not to do so, reportedly due to the condition of the submarine.
Around 2015, the IN had expressed interest in leasing a Yasen-class submarine as a follow-up to INS Chakra. However, in 2016, Moscow and New Delhi agreed on a follow-up lease of a second Akula-class boat.
Negotiations for the lease began in 2016 but proved protracted because of a near-doubling of the lease price. The Chakra deal had cost $970 million.
It remains to be seen what type of submarine will be leased under the new contract.
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