18 feared dead in Indian submarine explosion

India's navy said all 18 sailors on board a submarine which exploded and sank on Wednesday are feared dead.

The fully-armed INS Sindhurakshak, returned by original manufacturer Russia earlier this year after a major refit, exploded in flames in Mumbai shortly after midnight Wednesday and sank in a military shipyard.

Defence Minister A.K. Antony described the explosion as the "greatest tragedy in recent time".

"I feel sad about those navy personnel who have lost their lives in service of the country," he told reporters in New Delhi.

Chief of naval staff D.K. Joshi said no sign of life had been detected on board even after divers managed to enter through the main hatch in a bid to refloat the vessel.

"While we hope for the best, we have to prepare for the worst," he told reporters in Mumbai, adding that there was a possibility some crew might have found air pockets but "the indicators are negative".

The blast came days after New Delhi trumpeted the launch of its first domestically-produced aircraft carrier and the start of sea trials for its first Indian-made nuclear submarine.

The world's biggest democracy has been expanding its armed forces rapidly to upgrade its mostly Soviet-era weaponry and respond to what is perceived as a growing threat from regional rival China.

Amateur video footage showed a fireball in the forward section of the Sindhurakshak, where torpedoes and missiles are stored as well as the battery units.

"There were two to three explosions and the night sky lit up briefly," eyewitness Dharmendra Jaiswal told AFP.

Joshi said there had been an initial fire which appeared to have sparked a big explosion as weaponry ignited.

"The basic question is what caused the fire and explosion. We do not have an answer to that question as of now," he said.
A board of enquiry would probe all possible explanations including sabotage, but "the indicators at this point of time do not support that theory", he said.

P.S. Rahangdale, an off-duty firefighter who rushed to the scene, told a local television channel that the Sindhurakshak "was totally on fire" and was berthed next to another submarine.

"Because of timely intervention of my team and resources and navy's resources we could save that second submarine," he said.

Other sailors on vessels berthed nearby were admitted to a navy hospital in Mumbai with burns.

In February 2010 the Sindhurakshak suffered a fire while docked in Visakhapatnam city in southern India, killing a 24-year-old sailor and leaving two others with burns.

The submarine, whose name means "Protector of the Seas" in Hindi, is still covered by a Russian warranty and eight Zvyozdochka employees are in Mumbai.

The submarine was built in 1997 in Saint Petersburg and had completed 1,000 dive hours since returning after its refurbishment.

Rahul Bedi, a defence expert with IHS Jane's Defence Weekly, told AFP the 16-year-old submarine lacked some safety features common to newer vessels even after its $80 million overhaul.

"They don't have escape routes in the event of accidents, unlike some of the modern submarines," he said.

The Indian navy has 14 submarines, but only between seven and nine are operational at any one time because of regular repair and refitting operations.

The accident is set to overshadow scheduled talks between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a G20 summit in Saint Petersburg in September. 

Russia distances itself

Russia on Wednesday sought to guard its reputation as a supplier of military hardware by distancing itself from a deadly accident on an Indian submarine that its manufacturers had built and recently repaired.

Moscow remains New Delhi's biggest defence partner and is keen to preserve a market it has nurtured with great care since Soviet times.

Official statistics show that eight of the 11 Project 877 submarines such as the INS Sindhurakshak Russia has built for export since the 1980s have been delivered to India.

"I do not believe that this incident will have a negative impact on Russia's military cooperation with India," the state-run RIA Novosti news agency quoted Moscow's Global Arms Trade Centre expert Igor Korotchenko as saying.

But Indian officials have voiced growing displeasure with their old partner's service -- particularly concerning the cost-overruns and delays involved in the refit of a Russian aircraft carrier that now bears the name INS Vikramaditya.

Analysts believe that India is forced to continue purchasing Russian military parts because it still operates so many Soviet-era warplanes and vessels.

But New Delhi has also sought to expand its military trade ties with Washington in the past decade after remaining for so long under Moscow's care.

The US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates that cumulative defence sales between New Delhi and Washington had grown "from virtually zero" 10 years ago to more than $8 billion today.

That trend has unnerved Russian officials who have already suffered humiliations from two deadly post-Soviet submarine disasters and a raft of other military and space setbacks.

The INS Sindhurakshak was under a Russian warranty until January 2014.

The Russian-built boat -- commissioned in 1997 -- underwent a refit lasting more than two years after it had caught fire in 2010 and had only left its Barents Sea repair dock at the end of January.

Russian officials were quick to report that India had voiced no complaints after receiving the submarine in April.

"There have been no claims or technical complaints," the United Shipbuilding Corporation's spokesman Alexei Kravchenko told Russian state television.

The Russian firm that refitted the submarine also stressed that the craft was fully operational when returned to India.

A spokesman for the Russian Zvyozdochka ship repair company told RIA Novosti that "certain issues" had been raised when the INS Sindhurakshak was inspected by experts at the Severodvinsk port on the Barents Sea.

The unnamed spokesman did not give further details about the nature of the issues but said they were part of the "normal working process".

Russia's Interfax news agency also carried a report citing an unnamed "military-diplomatic source" who claimed that the INS Sindhurakshak could have been the target of a terror plot.

"We cannot exclude the possibility that someone was trying to ruin the Indian people's main holiday -- Independence Day -- which is celebrated on August 14," the Russian official told the news agency.

The official speculated that the boat could not have suffered an accident while in its dock because most of its main systems would have been probably switched off. However no further evidence was given to back up the claim.

 

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