An Indian Navy nuclear-propelled submarine, the INS Chakra is damaged.
The submarine that used to be in daily patrols is not operational now. The damage does not mean that it cannot sail. It also does not mean that it is radioactive.
But it means that it cannot see or hear.
The chief of naval staff, Admiral Sunil Lanba, said today that two of the INS Chakra’s sonar panels are not functional.
A senior submariner told The New Indian Express that the strategic asset will not be in operation for the next three months.
The submarine is with the Indian Navy on lease from Russia.
“If it was our own boat we would have fixed it immediately. But it is not ours. We are using it like we have hired it,” he said.
SONAR is short for ‘sound navigation and ranging’. In a submarine, the sonar is within a dome. In the INS Chakra it is mounted in the front. It sends and receives sound waves. The analysts among the crew interprete the data from the soundwaves to understand where a vessel, that could be adversarial, is.
A nuclear-powered submarine, like the INS Chakra, has greater endurance than conventional diesel-electric boats. It can sail under water without needing to surface for long periods.
The INS Chakra is based in Visakhapatnam. The port city in Andhra Pradesh is the hub for the Indian Navy’s submarine fleet that is set to celebrate its golden jubilee this fortnight.
The INS Chakra is the only nuclear-powered submarine with the Indian Navy. India has also quietly commissioned the INS Arihant that is both nuclear-propelled and is said to be armed with nuclear weapons.
The submariner officer said the absence of the Chakra would restrict the Indian Navy’s operations in the Bay of Bengal.
It is understood that the submarine was on regular patrol in the Andaman Sea, at the western mouth of the Straits of Malacca. Chinese vessels pass through the route every day.
The submariner officer told TNIE that the sonar dome of the Chakra was damaged as it “came alongside”. That means the boat hit the pier it was to be berthed in.
Importantly, the Russians did not permit the Indian Navy to change the sonar panels. The terms of the lease contract, the Russians said, specified that every part and component of the submarine could be changed or corrected only by them.