According to reports, India will be operating a nuclear powered submarine, the Akula ll class K. 152 Nerpa, which will be ‘rechristened INS Chakra’ and given to the Indian Navy by the Russian Navy during the period of November and December.

Also, the Russian Navy Chief Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky said, "the Indian crew is now absolutely prepared for operating the submarine, which will be on a 10-year lease”.

More than 50 Indian officers and sailors are reported to have undergone major training on the Nerpa, coupled with testing and acceptance trials of the submarine spread over some weeks.

Hence, the lease operates from an agreement between New Delhi and Moscow in January 2004, along with India funding part of Nerpa's construction at Komsomolsk-on-Amur shipyard in Russia with $650 million at first.

Despite the sub marine not armed with ‘long-range nuclear-tipped missiles due to international treaties like the Missile Technology Control Regime’, the Nerpa is said to assist in training Indian sailors in the complex art of operating nuclear submarines.

Moreover, more than 6,000-tonne INS Arihant, will become operational next year, as well as ‘armed with torpedoes and 300-km Klub-S cruise missiles’, as Nerpa will be the ‘lethal hunter of enemy submarines and warships’.