MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

India joins the exclusive club of nuclear powered submarines

Based on a Russian model, testing of the INS Chakra are scheduled to begin next month.

As part of a major project India is going to place its first domestically produced nuclear powered submarine to sea by mid-August and according to experts, this success will raise the status of Indian technology plus becoming a member of the exclusive club of nations with such submersibles, according to reports in the Indian press.

The 7.000-metric-ton INS Chakra is destined to be the first of five nuclear-powered submarines that India is determined to deploy by means of its Advanced Technology Vessel program. The single vessel is likely to contain ballistic missiles and in this way India’s aim of developing air-, land-, and sea-based nuclear weapons systems may be a reality before long.

Testing of the new vessel is scheduled to be conducted by mid-August in the Bay of Bengal and will take months, said Indian defence sources.

The submarine is based on the Russian Akula I model. The overall cost is 2.9 billion US dollars and is scheduled to become operational within two years. C. Raja Mohan, a Singapore-based professor of South Asian studies is quoted by the Financial Times saying that “this is a historic and big step forward”.

“The project is quite indigenous and it opens the door for the deploying by India of nuclear weapons in the ocean.”

Commenting on the disclosure a senior Indian official reaffirmed that New Delhi has no plans to sign the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, reported the Indian press.

“No sir,” said Minister of State Prithviraj Chavan when asked whether India has the intention to join the pact, which enlists signatory nations to promote non-proliferation, disarmament and the peaceful use of nuclear technology.

The other five countries which already possess nuclear powered submarines are United States, Russia, Great Britain, France and China, all permanent members of the UN Security council.

India is one of a handful of nations known or widely assumed to possess nuclear weapons — including rival Pakistan and Israel — that has refused to sign the non proliferation document.