Article Posted on : - Sep 17, 2009

An official photo of INS Sindhurakshak. The submarine will be refitted in Russia.

MOSCOW (BNS): Four of Indian Navy’s Kilo class submarines will be equipped with Russian-made Club-S subsonic cruise missiles in the next five years, Russian shipyard Zvezdochka has announced.

“The new missile system will be installed on INS Sindhuratna, INS Sindhuraj, INS Sindhushastra, and INS Sindhuvir. The retrofit will be carried out at Indian shipyards,” the shipyard in northern Russia said in a statement on Wednesday as reported by RIA Novosti.

The work would be completed in the next five years, the statement added.

Russia has built a total of ten Kilo class diesel submarines for India, of which two – INS Sindhugosh and INS Sindhuvijay – have been fitted with Club-S cruise missile systems so far.

The Club-S missile, with a range of 300 kilometers, is designed to be fired from a 533 mm torpedo tube, or a vertical launch tube. It uses ARGS-54 active radar seeker, GLONASS satellite and inertial guidance system, RIA Novosti said.

Besides equipping the four subs with the cruise missile system, the Zvezdochka shipyard will also refit another Indian Kilo class submarine INS Sindhurakshak under a deal expected to be inked in 2010, the report said.

Russia has undertaken the task of overhauling all 10 Indian Kilo class submarines. The upgrade programme involves complete overhaul of the submarines, including their hull structures, as well as improved control systems, sonar, electronic warfare systems, and an integrated weapon control system.