Article Posted on : - Jun 30, 2009

The Lada class diesel-electric patrol submarine was designed for anti-ship and anti-submarine defense. Credit: Military Today

St. Petersburg (BNS): Russia will participate in an open tender for the supply of next-generation diesel-electric submarines to the Indian Navy, Rosoboronexport's senior official has said.

"We will offer India an export version of the Lada class diesel submarine - the Amur class vessel. We will take part in the Indian tender when it is announced with these submarines or vessels of another class," Domain-B quoted Oleg Azizov, who is leading the Russian state arms export agency delegation at the International Maritime Defense Show 2009 here, as saying.

"We have a bilateral cooperation agreement in the military-technical sphere until 2020, which includes the possibility of supplying submarines to this country," he said.

The Project-677, or Lada class, diesel submarine, whose export version is known as the Amur 1650, features a new anti-sonar coating for its hull, an extended cruising range, and advanced anti-ship and anti-submarine weaponry, including the Klub-S integrated cruise missile systems.

It also quoted the project's general designer Yuri Kormilitsin as saying, "The submarine has been conceived as a kind of an underwater sea hunter, capable of destroying any target – surface naval ships, transport vessels, or submarines – using torpedoes, missiles, mines and also with the help of frogmen."

The use of state-of-the-art acoustic protection systems and original engineering innovations on Amur-class submarines will make them several times quieter than the earlier Project 877 Kilo-class submarines, a number of which currently serve with the Indian Navy, it said.

While the Project 877 EKM submarines represent an earlier, third, generation of submarines, the Amur-class are represent the fourth generation. The Amur will be available in two classes - the 950 and the 1650.

The 950 comes equipped with 10 vertical universal missile launchers, capable of launching the Klub-S anti-shipland attack missiles. These could also be adjusted to take onboard the Indo-Russian BrahMos submarine-launched supersonic cruise missile, it added.