INS Chakra (2009)

**Chakra**
	The chakra on April 4, 2012
Ship data
flag	India
Ship type	Nuclear submarine
class	Akula II class
home port	Visakhapatnam
Shipyard	Amurski Sudostroitelny Zawod, Amur
Keel laying	1993
Launch	2008
Commissioning	December 28, 2009 (Russia) January 23, 2012 (India)
Whereabouts	in service
Ship dimensions and crew
length	113.0 m ( Lüa )
width	including down elevator 15.4 m
displacement	surfaced: 8,470 t ; submerged: 13,800 t
crew	73
Machine system
machine	Nuclear, pressurized water reactor 190 megawatts
Machine ; performance	50,000 SHP
propeller	1, seven-winged
Mission data submarine
Diving depth, normal	480 m
Immersion depth, max.	600 m
Top ; speed ; submerged	33 kn (61 km / h)
Armament
	4 torpedo tubes 53.3 cm; 4 torpedo tubes 65.0 cm;

The Chakra is a nuclear powered submarine of the Indian Navy . She belongs to the series of the Russian Project 971 , designated by NATO as Akula class , and served, before her admission into the Indian Navy, until December 29, 2011 as K-152 Nerpa ( Russian К-152 Нерпа ) in the Russian Marine .

construction

The ship was added to the inventory of the naval fleet on January 31, 1991 and designated as a project 971 fighter submarine (NATO designation Akula ) on April 28, 1992 . In the Amur shipyard ( Russian: Амурский судостроительный завод ) in Komsomolsk am Amur , shipbuilders welded the first sections on August 31, 1993 - the keel-laying of hull number 518, later Nerpa . According to the order of the High Command of the Naval War Fleet of April 13, 1994, the submarine was given the name Nerpa (Russian seal ) and the boat was given the tactical number K-152. On December 4 of the same year, the boat took over the flag of K-56 (Project 675).

Due to a lack of money, the construction of K-152 was completely stopped on December 4, 1997 after a few interruptions. Work did not resume until January 30, 2002. At this point the boat was 68 percent complete. In 2004 it was reclassified to project 971I. After a Russian rescue submarine Pris class in 2005 wrecked , was on board K-152, a modified escape pod installed. In addition, the boat received fire control systems and sonar systems , as they are also installed on the K-335 Gepard (Project 971M, NATO: Akula II). In the middle of 2006 the boat was launched . The cost of the submarine is said to have been around 785 million US dollars as of 2007.

Historical

K-152 is the second Russian submarine to be named Nerpa . The first Nerpa was a Morsch class submarine , which was launched on September 28, 1913 and was put into service with the Tsarist Navy in 1914. It served in the Black Sea during the First World War until it was overhauled in the Nikolayev shipyard in 1917 . The work could not be completed until 1922 due to a lack of spare parts and the boat was put back into service on June 3, 1922 under the new name Politruk . In 1923 it was named No. 11 and decommissioned on December 3, 1930. In February 1931 it was sold as scrap . A Russian scrapping yard, which is specifically engaged in the disposal and repair of nuclear submarines, bears the same name and is located in Snezhnogorsk on the Kola Peninsula .

testing

The trial phase began on June 11, 2008.

According to an engineer from the repair yard for nuclear-powered submarines “Stern”, the fire extinguishing system malfunctioned in the summer of 2008 , but the engineers of the test commission then rectified the problem. At the end of October 2008, K-152 Nerpa left for a test drive in the Sea of Japan . According to official information, there were a total of 208 people on board, including 81 Russian seamen. One crew member stated that there were even 224 people on board. In connection with the intended use of the boat by the Indian naval forces , their spokesman, Nirad Sinha, stated that there were no Indians on board. The first dive trip was successfully completed on October 30, 2008 .

On November 8, 2008, the submarine remained on the Sea of Japan and triggered at 20:30 UTC +9 unexpectedly the fire extinguishing system hole (russ. ЛОХ , Л одочная О бъемная Х имическая защита / transcription L odotschnaja O bjemnaja Ch imitscheskaja saschtschita; German: chemical boat protection ) and released Freon gas in the two front sections . As a result, 21 people died, including 17 civilian technicians, including the head of the testing committee. 21 other people suffered poisoning during the incident. After the accident, the Nerpa returned and docked in Bolshoi Kamen on November 9, 2008 . The injured were taken aboard the anti-submarine ship Admiral Tributs (DD 552) and then admitted to hospitals in Vladivostok and the Primorsky Krai.

K-152 Nerpa is equipped with a fire extinguishing system of the recently introduced third generation, which automatically releases Freon-112 in the event of smoke development or increased temperature. The chairman of the St. Petersburg Association of Submariners, Captain Igor Kurdin, said that these systems had already malfunctioned several times and that some commanders would deactivate the automatic system. According to Russian information, there were 220 portable breathing apparatus on board the Nerpa.

On November 13, the spokesman for the investigative commission of the Russian General Prosecutor's Office, Vladimir Markin, said a sailor had confessed to activating the fire extinguishing system for no reason and without orders. An investigation for manslaughter had been initiated against him, but the investigative commission would continue its work and investigate the role and possible guilt of other people. The investigation did not reveal any evidence of a technical defect in the fire extinguishing system.

The spokeswoman for the shipyard told the Russian press agency RIA Novosti on the same day that the test drives should be resumed with the survivors of the handover team after the investigation and “all technical measures” had been completed.

The Russian naval fleet put K-152 Nerpa into service on December 28, 2009.

Leasing business with India

International treaties prohibit the sale of nuclear weapons carriers, but not their rental or leasing . After lengthy negotiations, Russia and India agreed on extensive Russian arms deliveries to India in 2004 during a visit to India by Russian Defense Minister Ivanov , including a leasing program that included 2 submarines and 4 long-range Tupolev Tu-22M bombers .

As part of this leasing program, K-152 Nerpa was to be handed over to India for 10 years, for which India wanted to pay 650 million US dollars in return. The handover of the boat should take place on August 15, 2007. However, the submarine shipyard, Amurski Sudostroitelny Zawod , delayed construction by 10 months and demanded that the price be increased to a total of $ 785 million. India refused the additional claim and only accepted a later extradition, which was to take place on June 15, 2008.

The date was then postponed several times:

First on December 2009.
In June 2010 to October or November 2010
In October 2010 it was announced that command of K-152 would not be handed over to the Indian Navy until March 2011 .
In mid-March 2011 it was announced that the handover would take place before October 2011.
At the beginning of July 2011 the date was postponed again to a date "at the end of the year" 2011.
In October 2011, in an article on the future of the Armur shipyard, the transfer date was specified as "early 2012", while according to an official announcement the original date, late 2011, should be adhered to.

K-152 is said to do its service in India under the name Chakra . A Russian submarine previously leased to India had the same name: the K-43, which was part of the 670 Skat project .

Three crews, about 300 men in total, were trained in the handling of the submarines in Russia. A separate training center has been set up in Sosnowy Bor for the training of Indian seafarers , which will also continue to be used for the crews of future submarines built in India.

In service with the Indian Navy

INS Chakra 2012

The technical acceptance of the Nerpa was confirmed on December 29, 2011 by the Indian side signing the relevant documents at the naval base in Bolshoi Kamen . The formal handover took place on January 23, 2012 in Bolshoi Kamen as part of a ceremony in which the Indian flag was raised on the boat. A sign with the words “Chakra” was unveiled on the boat during the ceremony. It was further confirmed that the Russian side did not equip the boat with cruise missiles with nuclear warheads, but could only use the conventional Klub S missile .

Individual evidence

↑ К-152, "Нерпа" проект 971, 971И (Russian)

↑ Norman Polmar, Jurrien Noot: Submarines of the Russian and Soviet Navies, 1718-1990 . Naval Institute Press, 1991. ISBN 0870215701

↑ Information on ISTC Project # 2111 by V. Nikitin, V. Kamenev, NIPTB "Onega" on iaea.org viewed on July 18, 2011 (PDF file; 1.06 MB)

↑ India's Navy with a new “Chakra”. RIA Novosti , July 10, 2008

↑ Система пожаротушения на "Нерпе" сломалась не в первый раз (Russian)

↑ New Russian nuclear submarine tested on the high seas

↑ Submarine crew surprised by gas in their sleep NZZ online , November 11, 2008

↑ Люди на подлодке «Нерпа» умирали от удушья ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Twoj Dien, November 11, 2008 (Russian)@1@ 2Template: dead link / tden.ru

↑ India's military wanted to rent the "Nerpa"

↑ Подлодка "Нерпа" в ходе испытаний провела первое погружение в море ( Memento of the original from February 22, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (soot.) @1@ 2

↑ Russia's new nuclear submarine successfully completes its first dive

↑ Sailor causes gas accident . In: Focus (accessed November 13, 2008)

↑ Misfortune during test drive . In: Spiegel Online - Panorama , November 9, 2008 (accessed September 9, 2008)

↑ Люди на АПЛ погибли из-за попадания в легкие фреона - СКП РФ

↑ Accident on Russian nuclear sub suffocates 20 (en) ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.

↑ Это большое горе для всех , Interfax (Russian)

↑ Accident in the Pacific: Damaged submarine docked - investigations initiated

↑ Пострадавшие на АПЛ "Нерпа" в ближайшие дни могут вернуться домой (Russian)

↑ Это большое горе для всех (russ.)

↑ According to investigators, the extinguishing system on the submarine was triggered by a seaman . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. net-tribune, November 13, 2008 (accessed November 13, 2008)@1@ 2

↑ Misfortune on the submarine: A sailor is to be blamed . In: Russland-Aktuell , November 13, 2008 (accessed November 13, 2008)

^ Russian submarine soon on test drive again despite fatal breakdown RIA Novosti, November 13, 2008 (accessed November 13, 2008)

↑ RIA Novosti: Russian Navy puts nuclear submarine "Nerpa" into service

↑ India borrows nuclear bombers from Russia ( Memento from March 17, 2003 in the Internet Archive ) Netzeitung , January 20, 2003

↑ Viktor Litovkin: Russian military equipment on the scale of the Indian market. In: sputniknews.com. December 21, 2005, accessed February 8, 2016 .

↑ Россия - США: война за Индийский океан ( Memento of the original from March 10, 2012 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Rosbalt Biznez, February 29, 2008 (Russian)