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India's nuke submarine is in final stages: Antony
BANGALORE: India's indigenous nuclear submarine is in its "final stages" of completion, Defence A K Antony said on Wednesday. "Things are in final stages," Antony told reporters on the sidelines of the Aero India show here when asked about the progress of the Advanced Technology Vehicle (ATV) project.He said there were certain "bottlenecks" in the project earlier, but now these have been resolved. The ATV is India's first venture into nuclear submarine design and development and it is expected to be armed with ballistic missiles such as the 750-km range Sagarika carrying nuclear warheads. The warship is expected to be launched for sea trials in April this year. Asked about the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier additional price negotiations, Antony said the Cabinet had already given its consent for discussing the fresh cost of the warship with the Russians and the two sides were holding frequent talks to arrive at a mutually agreeable price. India had signed a USD 1.5 billion deal with Russia in 2004 for Gorshkov and rechristened the ship as INS Vikramaditya. The aircraft carrier's refit and refurbishing programme is currently in progress at the Sevmash shipyard in Russia. Since 2007, Russians have been demanding an additional USD 1.5 billion for the warship, citing escalating refit costs Posted by: john frum 2009-02-11 |
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