Indian navy to decommission 40-year-old submarines

Curtains are being drawn on the last of Navy’s Soviet-era Foxtrot submarines, were commissioned around 40 years ago.

At a ceremony in Vishakhaptnam on Friday, INS Vela, one of the last two Foxtrots left, would be de-commissioned. These were probably the oldest submarines in active service anywhere in the world. The last one - Vagli - is also on its final leg and would be removed from the naval fleet later this year.

Vela and Vagli are also known as the V-class are part of second batch of eight Foxtrots bought by India from the Soviet Union in the late 1960s. The V-class had slightly superior sensors than the first four - the K-class Kurusura, Karanj, Khanderi and Kalvari.

Read more