India will lease a nuclear submarine from the aggressor country russia, for which it will pay about USD 2 billion. Negotiations on this have been going on between New Delhi and Moscow for about a decade.
Bloomberg reported this, citing its own sources.
The agency's unnamed sources said that the negotiations dragged on for many years due to disputes over the final cost of the deal. In November, the parties managed to reach an agreement, after which Indian officials visited the russian shipyard. New Delhi expects to receive the vessel within two or three years, although due to the complexity of the project, this may happen later.
The day before, Indian Navy Chief of Staff Admiral Dinesh Tripathi told reporters that the commissioning of the nuclear submarine is expected in the near future.
Earlier, the Nuclear Threat Initiative organization published a report stating that India has developed submarine-launched ballistic missiles with nuclear capabilities. Theoretically, they give the country the so-called "nuclear triad", which allows it to deliver nuclear weapons from land, air and sea.
Nuclear submarines are far superior to their diesel-electric counterparts, the report says. They tend to be larger, can stay submerged for much longer, and are quieter, making them harder to track. India currently has 17 submarines in service, but none nuclear.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, in July this year, The Times of India wrote that due to Western sanctions, India and russia could not launch a joint venture to produce helicopters.
And in March, India signed a contract with russia to supply engines for T-72 tanks, which are in service with the Indian army.
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