TheCultofAbeLincoln
30th September 2009, 04:01
Thought this was interesting, from 2008:
India will get its first Akula class Russian nuclear submarine next year, equipping its navy with the quietest and lethal underwater war machine after a gap of 17 years to enhance its blue water capabilities.
Factory trials of the multi-role nuclear submarine, christened INS Chakra, which India will get on a 10-year-lease, commenced on June 11 at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur shipyard and will be followed by sea trials, Russian defence sources said, adding it will be delivered by September 2009.
According to experts, Chakra would help India fill the void caused by the delays in the indigenous Advanced Technology Vessel project to build a nuclear powered, guided missile attack submarine.
Three Indian naval crews for the nuclear submarine have already been trained at the specially set up training centre in Sosnovy Bor near St. Petersburg.
This facility would also be used for training crews for the Indian nuclear submarines of ATV project currently in the advanced stages of development, sources said.
Though they said that India has financed the completion of construction of submarine of project 971 "Shchuka B"(NATO codename Akula) under the USD 650 million deal signed in 2004 as part of the larger Gorshkov package, they did not reveal the cost of the lease of Chakra.
Akula (Shark) is the quietest Russian attack submarine and Chakra has been christened after its predecessor leased by the Indian Navy in 1988 from the erstwhile USSR.
In January 1988, ex-USSR had leased K-43 nuclear submarine of project 670 (NATO codename Charlie) which was with the Indian Navy as INS Chakra till March 1991, when under the intense US pressure beleaguered Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev had refused to extend the lease.
An Akula is an excellent boat, and easily the Russians best attack sub. Very quiet, very lethal.
As someone who's going to be on a boat here in about a year or so, it's not uncommon to here sub guys tell stories along the lines of, "So we may or may not have been tracking this Russian boat down to the Atlantic, and we may or may not have thought we were following it down to Argentina, and it may or may not have been spotted the next day off of Scotland, but I definitely did go to Rio."
Point being, the US Navy has acknowledged that they've lost contact with Akula's, including off of the US Coast. It's almost certainly quieter than a 688 (Los Angeles class) which it was a response to at certain speeds, and the US response (Seawolf class) was essentially scrapped at the end of the cold war after 3 boats were built, shifting to the Virginia class, which is an multirole (espionage, dropping/picking up Seals, not a conventional hunter-killer). Also, the Seawolves were never fully developed and the few in existance (2 are in the fleet) have been plagued with mechanical problems.
This is interesting not only because India is getting nuclear powered boats, when the Russians normally only deal off Kilo class diesel/battery powered boats, but of what they can do with a sub like this.
For example,
In the early 1970s the U.S. government learned of the existence of an undersea communications cable in the Sea of Okhotsk (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/Sea_of_Okhotsk), which connected the major Soviet Pacific Fleet naval base at Petropavlovsk (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky) on the Kamchatka Peninsula (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/Kamchatka_Peninsula) to the Soviet Pacific Fleet (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/Pacific_Ocean_Fleet_(Russia))'s mainland headquarters at Vladivostok (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/Vladivostok). At the time, the Sea of Okhotsk was claimed by Russia as territorial waters (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/Territorial_waters), and was strictly off limits to foreign vessels, and the Soviet Navy had installed a network of sound detection devices along the seabed to detect intruders. The area also saw numerous surface and subsurface naval exercises.
Despite these obstacles, the potential for an intelligence coup was too great to ignore, and in October 1971 the United States sent the purpose-modified submarine USS Halibut (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/USS_Halibut_(SSGN-587)) deep into the Sea of Okhotsk. Divers working from the Halibut found the cable in 400 ft (120 m) of water and installed a 20 ft (6.1 m) long device, which wrapped around the cable without piercing its casing and recorded all communications made over it. The large recording device was designed to detach if the cable was raised for repair.
Each month, divers retrieved the recordings and installed a new set of tapes. The recordings were then delivered to the NSA for processing and dissemination to other U.S. intelligence agencies. The first tapes recorded revealed that the Soviets were so sure of the cable's security that the majority of the conversations made over it were uncoded. The eavesdropping on the traffic between senior Soviet officers provided an invaluable view inside naval operations at Petropavlovsk, the Pacific Fleet's primary nuclear submarine base, home to Yankee (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/Yankee_class_submarine) and Delta (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/Delta_class_submarine) class nuclear powered ballistic missile submarines.
Eventually, more taps were installed on Soviet lines in other parts of the world, with more advanced instruments built by AT&T (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/AT%26T)'s Bell Laboratories (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/Bell_Laboratories) that were nuclear powered and could store a year's worth of data. Other submarines were utilized for this role, including USS Parche (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/USS_Parche_(SSN-683)).
This is an example of what some would view as unconventional roles for a sub, but attack subs are largely designed to be able to go places where they're not supposed to.
Whether used as espionage, intimidation, tracking other boats, or launching cruise missiles, it can do a lot.
Just thought I'd pass that along.
Oh, and it is a pretty boat:
http://www.kitsune.addr.com/Robotech/Robotech-Vehicles/EBSIS_Delfin_Submarine.jpg
*NATO designation Akula, not the massive SSBN's which the Russians designate as Akula/NATO designation Typhoon.
India will get its first Akula class Russian nuclear submarine next year, equipping its navy with the quietest and lethal underwater war machine after a gap of 17 years to enhance its blue water capabilities.
Factory trials of the multi-role nuclear submarine, christened INS Chakra, which India will get on a 10-year-lease, commenced on June 11 at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur shipyard and will be followed by sea trials, Russian defence sources said, adding it will be delivered by September 2009.
According to experts, Chakra would help India fill the void caused by the delays in the indigenous Advanced Technology Vessel project to build a nuclear powered, guided missile attack submarine.
Three Indian naval crews for the nuclear submarine have already been trained at the specially set up training centre in Sosnovy Bor near St. Petersburg.
This facility would also be used for training crews for the Indian nuclear submarines of ATV project currently in the advanced stages of development, sources said.
Though they said that India has financed the completion of construction of submarine of project 971 "Shchuka B"(NATO codename Akula) under the USD 650 million deal signed in 2004 as part of the larger Gorshkov package, they did not reveal the cost of the lease of Chakra.
Akula (Shark) is the quietest Russian attack submarine and Chakra has been christened after its predecessor leased by the Indian Navy in 1988 from the erstwhile USSR.
In January 1988, ex-USSR had leased K-43 nuclear submarine of project 670 (NATO codename Charlie) which was with the Indian Navy as INS Chakra till March 1991, when under the intense US pressure beleaguered Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev had refused to extend the lease.
An Akula is an excellent boat, and easily the Russians best attack sub. Very quiet, very lethal.
As someone who's going to be on a boat here in about a year or so, it's not uncommon to here sub guys tell stories along the lines of, "So we may or may not have been tracking this Russian boat down to the Atlantic, and we may or may not have thought we were following it down to Argentina, and it may or may not have been spotted the next day off of Scotland, but I definitely did go to Rio."
Point being, the US Navy has acknowledged that they've lost contact with Akula's, including off of the US Coast. It's almost certainly quieter than a 688 (Los Angeles class) which it was a response to at certain speeds, and the US response (Seawolf class) was essentially scrapped at the end of the cold war after 3 boats were built, shifting to the Virginia class, which is an multirole (espionage, dropping/picking up Seals, not a conventional hunter-killer). Also, the Seawolves were never fully developed and the few in existance (2 are in the fleet) have been plagued with mechanical problems.
This is interesting not only because India is getting nuclear powered boats, when the Russians normally only deal off Kilo class diesel/battery powered boats, but of what they can do with a sub like this.
For example,
In the early 1970s the U.S. government learned of the existence of an undersea communications cable in the Sea of Okhotsk (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/Sea_of_Okhotsk), which connected the major Soviet Pacific Fleet naval base at Petropavlovsk (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky) on the Kamchatka Peninsula (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/Kamchatka_Peninsula) to the Soviet Pacific Fleet (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/Pacific_Ocean_Fleet_(Russia))'s mainland headquarters at Vladivostok (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/Vladivostok). At the time, the Sea of Okhotsk was claimed by Russia as territorial waters (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/Territorial_waters), and was strictly off limits to foreign vessels, and the Soviet Navy had installed a network of sound detection devices along the seabed to detect intruders. The area also saw numerous surface and subsurface naval exercises.
Despite these obstacles, the potential for an intelligence coup was too great to ignore, and in October 1971 the United States sent the purpose-modified submarine USS Halibut (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/USS_Halibut_(SSGN-587)) deep into the Sea of Okhotsk. Divers working from the Halibut found the cable in 400 ft (120 m) of water and installed a 20 ft (6.1 m) long device, which wrapped around the cable without piercing its casing and recorded all communications made over it. The large recording device was designed to detach if the cable was raised for repair.
Each month, divers retrieved the recordings and installed a new set of tapes. The recordings were then delivered to the NSA for processing and dissemination to other U.S. intelligence agencies. The first tapes recorded revealed that the Soviets were so sure of the cable's security that the majority of the conversations made over it were uncoded. The eavesdropping on the traffic between senior Soviet officers provided an invaluable view inside naval operations at Petropavlovsk, the Pacific Fleet's primary nuclear submarine base, home to Yankee (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/Yankee_class_submarine) and Delta (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/Delta_class_submarine) class nuclear powered ballistic missile submarines.
Eventually, more taps were installed on Soviet lines in other parts of the world, with more advanced instruments built by AT&T (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/AT%26T)'s Bell Laboratories (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/Bell_Laboratories) that were nuclear powered and could store a year's worth of data. Other submarines were utilized for this role, including USS Parche (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/USS_Parche_(SSN-683)).
This is an example of what some would view as unconventional roles for a sub, but attack subs are largely designed to be able to go places where they're not supposed to.
Whether used as espionage, intimidation, tracking other boats, or launching cruise missiles, it can do a lot.
Just thought I'd pass that along.
Oh, and it is a pretty boat:
http://www.kitsune.addr.com/Robotech/Robotech-Vehicles/EBSIS_Delfin_Submarine.jpg
*NATO designation Akula, not the massive SSBN's which the Russians designate as Akula/NATO designation Typhoon.