SSN Nerpa to be delivered to India till the end of 2010

02.06.2010 India will receive nuclear-powered attack submarine Nerpa for lease in autumn 2010, said Mikhail Dmitriev, director of Federal Service for Military Technical Cooperation at the press conference in New Delhi.

"This year, for sure. Perhaps, in October or November. Crew training and most of trials have been finished. Things come to an end", said Dmitriev giving interview on Tuesday after session of Russian-Indian supervisory committee.

As previously reported by Indian media, India assigned over $600 mln for completion of SSN Nerpa with a view to lease the sub for 10 years. In Nov 2008 during the sub's sea trials some people died because of unauthorized activation of firefighting system. After repairs the submarine had successfully passed all subsequent phases of shipyard's and state trials.

SSN Nerpa is a 3rd generation submarine. Displacement is 8,140/12,770 tons; max speed is 30 knots; test depth is 600 meters; endurance is 100 days; crew is 73.

New collaborative mechanism

Supervisory committee discussed all bilateral programs and contracts on Tuesday session, including licensed production of T-90 tanks at Avadi factory and Su-30MKI aircrafts, development projects of a 5-gen aircraft and a military transport aircraft.

"Generally, the background is positive, everything proceeds in a friendly atmosphere, there are no problematic issues", said Dmitriev.

The countries agreed in 2008 to arrange regular meetings of high-ranking officials and military experts within a framework of supervisory committee. The purpose of such sessions is to conduct effective monitoring of Russian-Indian defense programs execution.

Alongside with that, Indian and Russian officials hold annual sessions of intergovernmental committee for defense cooperation. Co-chairmen of this committee are defense ministers of the two countries.

Aircrafts

Russia and India have previously tied agreements on collaborative development and production of 5th generation aircraft (PAK-FA) and medium military transport aircraft (Project MTA).

PAK-FA performed the first test flight in January. Development of MTA will be upon a New Delhi-based joint venture company. At present, experts of the two countries negotiate conditions of PAK-FA design documentation transfer to India and arrange all required formalities to establish the joint venture.

"For our part, everything is ready. Indian party passes domestic procedures", said Dmitriev commenting progress of the projects' implementation.

He expressed hope that within the nearest three months certain agreements on these two projects would be signed.