Indian Navy's Kilo-Class Submarine, INS Sindhuvijay [Photographs] [UPDATED: 2012.07.23]

The Indian Navy operates a fleet of 10 Kilo-class diesel-powered submarines of Russian-origin. In India they're are referred to as the Sindhughosh-class submarines. The first such submarine, also named INS Sindhughosh, was inducted into the Indian Navy's fleet in the mid-1980s, while the last Kilo-Class, INS Sindhushastra, began its service with the Navy in 2000. In the meanwhile, these submarines were also put through a refit & upgrade programme that was carried out at the Zvezdochka shipyard in Russia, with one submarine, INS Sindhukirti, currently undergoing a much-delayed refit at India's own Hindustan Shipyard Ltd.

This hi-res photograph shows the Navy's INS Sindhuvijay [S62] placed on the dry dock at the Russian shipyard during its refit process.

Upon completion of its upgrade, it set sail for India on the 6^th of August 2008 & the journey was expected to take around 3 months for the submarine to reach India. This photograph of the Sindhuvijay was taken when it surfaced en-route on September 8 2008.

source

Many of these Kilo-Class, including INS Sindhuvijay [S62], have been upgraded to fire the Russian Klub-class of Cruise missiles [Klub-S Land Attack Cruise Missile (SS-N-27)]  from its torpedo tubes. The Sindhuvijay has also been upgraded with an indigenously developed SONAR & communication system among others. The submarines are expected to to remain in service with the Indian Navy till around 2030 when the last of the Sindhughosh-class would likely be decommissioned, unless of course they are made to undergo some kind of life-extension program.

Bharat Rakshak's Sindhughosh page has a detailed overview of this submarine class & its subsequent refit/upgrade.

UPDATE [2012.0723]

A couple of more pictures of the Sindhuvijay in Russia

via www.navy.su

Godspeed

Related: Indian Navy Submarine [Wallpaper]