By Varonika for Dispatch News Desk News Agency
The fears of Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding possibilities of transferring of top secret technology of Russia to United States by India have come true as Indian Navy recently allowed US Navy technical team to inspect Russian nuclear submarine of Project 971I for 5 hours.
Russian nuclear submarine of Project 971I known also as Chakra is operated by the Indian Navy on lease basis.
It is pertinent to mention that Russian President Vladimir Putin suspended a deal with India for providing state of the art missile system S-400 while fearing that India would share Russian technology with United States.
“The recent incident has threatened negotiations between the two countries for the lease of the second nuclear submarine, and on other projects in the field of military-technical cooperation (MTC). Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who intends to come to India in December, will have to resolve the accumulated problems with one of the largest purchasers of Russian arms”, said sources in Russian Defence Ministry.
Despite clear leasing conditions prescribed in the contract, Delhi allowed the visit of US Navy experts to the Chakra submarine, who got acquainted with its internal systems.
When one of the most popular Russian online newspaper “Kommersant” contacted the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation to comment on this serious breach in contract by Indians, officials refrained from sharing any comments. Kommersant also contacted Indian Embassy in Moscow and Indian Embassy also avoided commenting over this sensitive issue.
Kommersant reported that several sources in Russian state structures have confirmed that India has committed several “unfriendly acts towards the Russian Federation recently”.
Newspaper claims that US Navy delegation also visited the aircraft carrier Vikramaditya (the former aircraft-carrying cruiser Admiral Gorshkov) and Russian officials were forced to state a note of protest to India. Since Vikramaditya is the property of the Indian Navy therefore Russians could not force their decision on India but Chakra nuclear submarine is on the lease and India has no right to allow US Navy experts to inspect the submarine.
Newspaper also claims that among US Navy team there were well-trained technical specialists and they took out sensitive information from Chakra.
Chakra submarine is able to reach a depth of 600 metre deep in water and moves underwater at a speed of up to 30 knots. Armed with torpedoes, mines, anti-ship- anti-submarine missiles, Chakra is a high tech lethal sea weapon.
On October 4, the nuclear submarine had an accident, damaging the fairing of the nasal antenna of the hydro-acoustic complex. The Indian Navy command does not disclose the circumstances of the incident, but experts suggest that such damage to the submarine is usually obtained either by collision with another object, or because of a strike against the ground. The Indian military created a commission to investigate the causes of the incident and assess the technical condition of the boat, and an inspection team from Russia joined in.
According to Kommersant, the whole series of incidents can have a very negative impact on military-technical cooperation between the two countries, which has been successfully developing over the past five years (India has never dropped out of the top three of the largest buyers of Russian weapons). According to several informed interlocutors of Kommersant, now the relevant Russian structures are preparing retaliatory measures against Indian partners: “Very difficult talks are coming, we have a lot of questions”, said Russian experts in Ministry of Defence.
