Manoj Ambat's Blog dealing with Defence, Foreign Affairs, Strategic Affairs and Politics

Russian Yasen class SSN ( Image credita- Wikimedia Commons / Author-  Пресс-служба Северного флота (г. Североморск) Source- The National Interest Author- Dave Majumdar The Russian attack submarine K-560 Severodvinsk has completed its first operational mission. The powerful new boat—the first of the Project 885 Yasen-class—embarked on its first mission earlier this year despite having been accepted into service with the Russian Navy in 2014 due to ongoing sea trials. Indeed, Severodvinsk has been in sea trials since 2011 as the Russian Navy and its contractors struggled to correct technical issues on the new submarines. “Congratulations to the crew of ASMC ‘Severodvinsk’ on the successful implementation of the objectives of military service and return to home base - the city of Zaozersk!” reads an Aug. 1, 2016, post on the Russian Submariners page on the Russian social media network VKontakte. “The event is significant not only for the submarine fleet, but for the ent

Yasen class SSN at launch ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Kremlin) Source- The National Interest Author- Dave Majumdar The Russian Navy’s first Project-885 Yasen-class nuclear-powered guided-missile submarine, K-329 Severodvinsk, is set to deploy on its first combat training mission. The new submarine recently completed operational testing after being accepted into service in June 2014. Prior to that, the boat had been undergoing pre-delivery sea trials since September 2011. “Operations trials of the Severodvinsk submarine are over and the submarine is ready to fulfill its designated missions,” Russian Northern Fleet spokesman Vadim Serga told the Moscow-based TASS news agency. “The Severodvinsk’s crew is currently completing measures necessary to put the submarine into service and to take to sea for planned combat training sessions." Severodvinsk and her more advanced Project-885M sister ships are capable vessels. “We’ll be facing tough potential o

INS Chakra ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Indian Navy) Source- Russia & India Report Author-  Ivan Safronov , Kommersant Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu and Manohar Parrikar, India’s Defence Minister discussed the lease of a second nuclear submarine to India. While discussing military-technical cooperation between the two countries during a telephone conversation on March 23, the two ministers agreed to work out details for the transfer, on a leasing agreement, of a second nuclear-powered submarine (NPS) to the Indian Navy. According to Kommersant, the situation is being complicated by different approaches to this issue. In New Delhi they want to rent the latest multi-purpose project 885 Yasen-class submarine, but the Russian Navy has its own plans for this sub. A compromise being considered is the transfer of a project 971 submarine. Kommersant learned about the phone conversation between the two ministers from an official Defence Ministry press

INS Chakra SSN ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Indian navy) Source- Russia & India Report Author- Rakesh Krishna Simha Russia and India – either through design or happenstance – are set to engage the western navies in an interesting game of undersea hide and seek. Chasing nuclear submarines is how major navies earn their keep. The Russian and US fleets track each other’s subs on a 24/7 basis by listening to the acoustic signatures – a combination of noise emissions – that are unique to each type of submarine. For several decades the Americans held the advantage as they claimed to have quieter submarines. The Russians closed the gap by the mid-1980s and today their submarines have got the inside track on the US Navy. The net result is this undersea contest has become more intense now and the stakes are a lot higher too. Unlike surface ships and aircraft, submarines do not have markings or IFF (Identify Friend/Foe) codes that can out them. The only way

Yasen class SSN ( Image credits- Defence.pk) Source- Russia& India Report / Ria Novosti A modified ‘Yasen’ class submarine, Russia’s latest nuclear sub, could be built specially for India, a report in the Indian ‘Economic Times’ newspaper suggested. The ET was quoting the analyst Zachary Keck who, in an article in ‘The National Interest,’ said it was possible that the new submarine would be one of the multi-purpose ‘Yasen’ class submarines, equipped with cruise missiles, or a modification of the Yasen. According to Keck, the ET report states, India has been interested in leasing a multi-purpose attack submarine for quite a long while. This time, the Russian government has taken this interest on board and is developing a separate submarine for India. "The final details are yet to be discussed, but at present it has been practically decided that a completely new submarine will be built", the ET quotes Keck as saying, while citing an anonymous source famili