Twenty die on Russian submarine

**dirtydog** · 09-11-2008, 11:15 AM

Twenty die on Russian submarine

The sinking of the Kursk was Russia's worst submarine disaster

At least 20 people have died in an incident involving the failure of a fire extinguishing system on a Russian nuclear submarine, local media report.

Russian Pacific Fleet spokesman Igor Dygalo said both sailors and shipyard workers died in the incident, which occurred during sea trials.

He said the submarine itself had not been damaged and there had been no radiation leaks.

Military prosecutors are investigating the incident.

Injured evacuated

The submarine, whose name and class have not been revealed, has been ordered to suspend sea trials and return to port in the far eastern Primorye territory, Capt Dygalo said.
"I declare with full responsibility that the reactor compartment on the nuclear-powered submarine is working normally and the radiation background is normal," he said, quoted by Itar-Tass news agency.

There were 208 people on board at the time, 81 of whom were servicemen.
Twenty-one injured people have been evacuated from the submarine, sources at the fleet said.

Reports say the incident occurred in the nose of the vessel. The nuclear reactor, which is in the stern, was not affected.

A shipyard source told the RIA Novosti news agency the vessel was the K-152 Nerpa, an Akula-class submarine, but this cannot be independently confirmed.

RIA said the trials were in the Japanese Sea and that the Nerpa was due to be leased to the Indian navy.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is being kept fully informed about the incident, his press service said.

Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Kolmakov and Navy Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Vysotsky are flying to the scene of the incident.

Russia's worst submarine disaster happened in August 2000, when the nuclear-powered Kursk sank in the Barents Sea. All 118 people on board died.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Twenty die on Russian submarine

**Mid** · 31-12-2011, 04:30 PM

Russia hands over Nerpa nuclear sub to India
Saturday, December 31, 2011

MOSCOW: Russia has handed over the nuclear-powered attack submarine Nerpa to India following more than two years of delays, a senior naval official was quoted as saying Friday. “The signing ceremony happened yesterday at the Bolshoi Kamen ship building facility in the (Far East) Primorye region where the Nerpa is now based,” the official in the naval chief of staff said. The report said an Indian crew would sail the Akula II class craft to its home base at the end of January after receiving it on a 10-year lease, a deal likely to irk Pakistan.

“All of the naval tests and performance checks have been completed, the crew will begin making themselves feel at home on board the craft after New Year and start sailing it to India in the latter half of January,” the naval staff said.

The Nerpa will be the first nuclear-powered submarine to be operated by India in nearly two decades after it decommissioned its last such Soviet-built vessel in 1991.India is currently completing the development of its own Arihant-class nuclear-powered ballistic submarines and the Nerpa’s delivery is expected to help crews train for the domestic boat’s introduction into service next year.

The Russian Pacific port ceremony was held on the same day that a shipyard fire engulfed the Northern Fleet’s Yekaterinburg nuclear-powered strategic submarine in the Murmansk region on the opposite side of the country. Nerpa had initially been due to be handed over to India in 2009 but experienced various problems during testing. It suffered a mishap during trials in the Sea of Japan in November 2008 that killed 20 sailors when a fire extinguisher released a deadly chemical that was accidentally loaded into the system.

Media reports said that some of the ship’s equipment malfunctioned during testing and that the weapons navigation system did not work to India’s specifications. The 8,140-tonne vessel can fire a range of torpedoes as well as Granat cruise missiles that can be nuclear-tipped.

India has promised not to arm the submarine with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles under its obligations to international treaties it adopted after conducting a series of atomic tests in the 1990s. But the craft’s delivery has still angered Pakistan. “Rest assured, there will be no compromise in terms of maintaining the credibility of our deterrence,” Pakistan’s Foreign Office Spokesman Abdul Basit was quoted as saying by The Asian Age newspaper this week.

The submarine is due to be commissioned as the INS Chakra in India under a 2004 agreement that had seen seen the South Asian giant pay $650 million in construction costs. Newspaper reports in India said New Delhi may end up paying as much as $900 million under the terms of the deal.

Russia supplies 70 percent of India’s military hardware but New Delhi has been unhappy about delays to arms orders from Moscow and looked to other suppliers including Israel and the United States in recent years.

dailytimes.com.pk

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