An Indian naval crew will take part in the final phase of pre-delivery trials of Russian Akula-II class nuclear attack submarine 'Nerpa' commencing later this month.
As per the understanding reached under the larger Gorshkov aircraft carrier deal inked in January 2004, the Nerpa nuclear submarine built at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur-based shipyard is to be leased to the Indian Navy as 'INS Chakra' for ten years.
According to officials, the Indian crew would independently operate the submarine under the supervision of Russian instructors after an intensive training by the Russian Navy.
During the earlier trial, 20 technical staff and crew were killed due to release of lethal Freon gas from fire suppression system of the submarine in the Sea of Japan on November 8, 2008, delaying its delivery by almost a year.
Sea trials were resumed on July 10 in the Sea of Japan after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin personally visited the shipyard and released $60 million for the completion and delivery of the submarine by the end of this year.
Earlier, Russian media reports suggest that India paid $650 million for a 10-year lease of the 12,000-ton K-152 Nerpa, which is similar to the indigenously-built INS Arihant developed under India's most secretive Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project.
NATO experts consider Akula-II class vessels as the quietest and deadliest of all Russian nuclear attack submarines.
