Indian Navy grows stronger

The Indian Navy was originally established and developed according to the British model. During the 1960s, India started purchasing combat vessels and navy armaments from the Soviet Union, gaining access to what was then cutting-edge military technology. Many of the vessels India is building itself have been designed with Russian input and are fitted with Russian-made equipment and armaments.

According to Ruslan Pukhov, the director of prominent Russian think tank AST, it was only thanks to Russia that India has been able to gain access to unique technologies and opportunities such as building nuclear submarines and supersonic anti-ship missiles. Mr Pukhov believes that no other country would have granted India anything similar.

The high point of its cooperation with Moscow was India’s lease in January of 1988 of a Soviet nuclear submarine code-named Project 670 (to be more exact, of its “export” version, Project 06709). The submarine, renamed Chakra, was armed with the powerful Ametist anti-ship missiles.

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