Above: INS Sindhurakshak ablaze (Reuters)
Posted at Wikipedia:
On 14 August 2013, [INS] Sindhurakshak [S63] sank after explosions caused by a fire took place onboard when the submarine was docked at Mumbai. The fire, followed by a series of ordnance blasts on the armed submarine, occurred shortly after midnight. The fire was put out within two hours. It is unclear exactly what caused the fire. Due to damage from the explosions, the submarine sank at its berth with only a portion visible above the water surface. Sailors on board reportedly jumped off to safety. Navy divers were also brought in as there was a possibility that 18 personnel were trapped inside. India's defence minister confirmed that there were fatalities.
Due to the explosion, the front section of the submarine was twisted, bent and crumpled, and water had entered the forward compartment. Another [Kilo class] submarine, INS Sindhuratna [S59], also sustained minor damage when the fire on Sindhurakshak caused its torpedoes to explode. Defence minister A. K. Antony briefed the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the submarine incident, and would leave for Mumbai to visit the accident site.
Official sources said it was "highly unlikely" the submarine could be returned to service.Iran's navy also operates three Kilo class submarines: Tareq (901), Noor (902) and Yunes (903), which like the stricken Indian submarines are also Project 877EKM types.
File photo of INS Sindhurakshak (Reuters)
30 comments:
Torp cook-off?
Somehow Iranian Kilos are not exploding despite that they are entirely modernized and refurbishrd domestically (under the "regime" supervision).
The Kilo submarines are considered by the NATO experts as a very difficult to detect; during lenghty detections tests, while they tested that type of submarines, operated by a couple of the new NATO members such as Romania and Poland...
A-F
This is the same piece of junk as the one Iran has in its navy.
This unfortunate accident has nothing to do with IRIN. Your pathetic one liner is like if your neighbor had an accident in his 16 year old VW then you will have one too. No logic to it.
Iran has three KILOS and they have been upgraded. TARIK, YUNES and NOOR. All have gone a major refit with Iranian fabricated replacement parts for internal (pumps, compressors, engines, and the like) and external (sound absorbent tiles, control surfaces) components and installed them. Iran is now also producing some of the complex technology like pneumatics, engines, and electronics)as its domestic and foreign made submarine fleet has grown to over 30 medium, midget and mini subs. Kilo is a relatively modern design and entered service in 1980's Russian navy (USSR) and have been upgraded since then.s
Iranian upgraded Kilos weigh 2,300 tons (surface displacement), have six torpedo tubes, and a crew of 57. They are quiet and can travel about 700 kilometers under water at a quiet speed of about five kilometers an hour. Kilos carry 18 torpedoes or SSN-27 anti-ship missiles (Iran has put domestically made SSN with a range of over 300 kilometers and launched underwater from the torpedo tubes as shown on the live fire exercises in the Persian Gulf last year). The combination of quietness and cruise missiles makes Kilo very dangerous to surface ships. The new Iranian components have probably made these boats even more lethal and quieter. Iranian KILOS also have SAMS and Manpads for air defence.
The fact is that India is being pushed by the US into a massive arms build-up in a delusional quest to "counter China" for which it will never be a match. India has over 800 million dirt poor people living on less than 50 cents a day. For anyone who has been to India or has worked with Indian engineers, you would know that India has a very primitive and fatalistic infrastructure. Just watch the "recovery" process on TV and you will see what I mean. India has the same problem with MIGS and Jaguars, they have crashed over 200 of them due to poor maintenance and pathetic flying skills. The MIG 21 even with BISON upgrades is known as the flying Coffin In Indian Airforce.
The KILOS generally are very good diesel platforms but have had problems with sparking batteries, specially in high heat and humidity operating environment of the Persian Gulf. Iranian engineers have fixed these kinks, but unfortunately accidents can happen anywhere, even on US and Russian nuclear subs. RIP to the Indian sailors of the silent service.
Pakistan?
Quite possible that Pakistani ISI could have sabotaged it as tensions over Kashmir are very high again with daily military clashes. Mumbai port is both civilian and naval with very lax security and I have personally taken a small boat to travel quite easily between hundreds of small boats, fishing dhows,merchant ships and the naval docks that are easily accessible. India has a lot of domestic insurgent groups too from the Sikhs who killed Mr.Gandhi to the Tamils who killed her son Rajiv.
However, I personally believe that this was an accident as Indian technical expertise is not the best and the KILO batteries are very prone to spark up in high acidity, high humidity salt water environment. Keep in mind a submarine has very poor ventilation and fumes can build up undetected quite easily. All you need is a spark and then there are many combustibles around.
There is nothing "junk" about the kilo`s they are a formidable weapon and iran should be seeking to either acquire more or build their own equivalent
Actually Iran's Kilos received lots of parts made in India when they were refitted.
A major factor for the Kilos as with all Russian submarines is their anechoic tile coating that absorbs both active sonar from other ships and submarine self noise. These tiles are great but only if you can maintain them because a few will always fall off while out on patrol. Iran's kilos have had these tiles mostly removed (in all the recent photos you can see large areas where the tiles are missing), probably because either they can't manufacture them domestically, the Russians won't supply them or they are saving them for wartime. In the later case it means that other nations who monitor the Iranian fleet can get better acoustic profiles of the submarines for future use.
Those quotes by NATO experts on the quietness of the Kilo are 20 years old. The Kilos are old, cranky boats with partial analog sonars, and a limited supply of spare parts which is why they are being slowly retired in several navies.
It's possible, they are known to carry the 53-65 series of torpedoes that use Hydrogen Peroxide as a fuel. That stuff is very volatile and has sunk several submarines in the past.
Interestingly the battery system the Iranian's stripped out of their Kilo boats was actually replaced by ones developed in India for their Kilos because both nations operate Kilos regions of similar conditions.
Batteries were made in India as confirmed by their navy. Batteries in heat and humidity mixed with saline air tend to spark off. Nothing to do with Iran sonny.
Iran's medium sized submarine to be launched soon
TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran's new home-made submarine, Fateh, will be unveiled soon, Lieutenant Commander of the Iranian Navy Rear Admiral Gholam Reza Khadem Biqam announced, and added that the vessel will be handed to the naval force in the next few months.
The Iranian commander Tuesday said that the construction process of Fateh submarine is implementing normally and is nearing completion.
Fateh submarine will be delivered to the Iranian Navy in the near future, Khadem Bigham pointed out.
Iranian Navy Commander Habibollah Sayyari had earlier this year informed of the country's plan for unveiling a new submarine.
“Fateh submarine, Kaman-class missile-launcher warships and Jamaran 2 destroyer will become operational in the current year,” Rear Admiral Sayyari told reporters.
In recent years, Iran has made great achievements in its defense sector and attained self-sufficiency in producing essential military equipment and systems.
Iran in late 2012 boosted its naval power in the Persian Gulf waters after a new missile launching vessel and two light submarines joined its Navy fleet.
The body of Sina-7 missile-launching frigate was launched in a ceremony in Iran's Southern port city of Bandar Abbas on the occasion of the National Day of Navy in November.
During the ceremony attended by the Iranian Navy commander, two Qadir-class light submarines also joined the Iranian naval fleet.
Highly improbable, most likely an accident, even though security is lax at Mumbai as a dozen Pakistani trained guerrillas had shut the whole city down in 2008 in the Taj Hotel siege in a naval operation from a Pakistani mother ship in the Arabian Sea off the coast. They were able to take enough ammo and supplies to tie down the whole city for a week undetected by Indian naval patrols.
Pakistani ISI does have the capability but I don't think in this case they were involved. The Indian Navy has confirmed it was a battery explosion (they were made in India replacing the original Russian ones).
definitely pakistan sabotage
lets go to war
Sure, one way of sub-continental population control as it would go nuclear in days and Iran and the Persian Gulf region will suffer radiation and fallout as well. A CIA wargaming study in 2010 predicted that just a nuclear strike on Mumbai, Delhi in India and Karachi and Lahore in Pakistan will kill around 16 million people directly and another 50 million by slow radiation. Not a very optimistic scenario.
US NAVY FEARS Iranian Navy Ghadir class STEALTH mini submarines
These submarines operate in the shallow waters in the Persian Gulf. The U.S. navy sonar equipment are not very effective in shallow waters. They are not equipped to finding mini submarines like these.
"The Iranian submarines are a threat to us because they can disperse them throughout the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, and it's extremely difficult for us to track them, enabling them to lie in wait to execute ambush,"
Christopher Harmer
U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet
The Kilo is a killer to its crew!
Have we any shortage of good old Iranian names in our vocabulary to resort to these Arabic names?
Any submarine can kill its crew in a few seconds under the right circumstances. As I heard a submariner once say "we won't run this boat on fear; but if you don't do everything right we all die."
Also the Indians have said that the explosion was likely caused by a fire that started during a battery charge that spread to the torpedo compartment. As I've posted before Iran had its Kilos refitted with the same batteries India uses.
The iranian kilos had their tiles replaced as part of the refit as you can see from these photos,the idea that iran would operate the boats without the tiles is absurd
http://jamejamonline.ir/Media/images/1391/03/09/L00813240527.jpg
http://jamejamonline.ir/Media/images/1391/03/09/L00813240374.jpg
No except Iran's submarines are far more worse "sonny".
I have heard that new versions of acoustic coating have been created, and that that new type of rubber film coatings have mitigated previous problems...
Regarding those NATO tests ;- exercises with the Kilo submarines, they were still conducted during the years after the 2000 year.
A-F
Anon 12:14AM
India has got ten Kilos and four German built submarines as well their domestically built one(s). They also planned to buy submarines from France...
In addition they lease Russian built nuclear powered submarine...
My conclussion about that accident is that Indians have ignored proper modernization of the Kilos with the proper Russian specifications, despite that this Indian stricken submarine was just overhauled last year in Russia.
They assumed that they will experiment on their own and "marry" technologies of different countries....and they will get Russian services for "peanuts", like it has been with the recent aircraft carrier, which has been refurbished in Russia.
A-F
I believe we lost that option about 1400 years ago.
Don't you know...the current regime and its groupies are Arab whorshippers and wannabe Arabs. They want nothing more than to be like the Arabs in every sense. They imitate and copy the Arabs, while trying to erase and/or supress so much of our real history. Persian cultural heritage and identity has been relegated to second place. Hussayn (the Tazi) is much more important to them than Persian national hero - Rostam.
Actually those photos posted show the tiles are gone and most of the outer hull is down to its steel. If you look at the 2nd photo to the right you will see an area that is "raised" over the rest of the hull by about an inch, that is the remaining tiles. See how the grates for the limber holes and the various ports and hard patches all stick up about an inch from the hull? That is because the cluster guard tile system is mostly missing, all that stuff is meant to be flush with the hull. Iran's kilos while on patrol have been spotted with their cluster guard missing, one made a port call in Djibouti, an acquittance of mine who was on a cargo ship docked their filmed the sub pulling in:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl8yErZ4b-4
You can see the sections of the cluster guard that are missing.
This image will help explain:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/59/79zn.jpg/
This is a Russian Kilo being refitted in Ukraine. Zoom in an look at where the outer hull has been cut away, you will see the Cluster Guard tiles, the outer steel hull (it is reddish), and then the free flooding areas and ballast tanks.
Now look at this high res photo of one of Iran's kilos:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/600/sjo5.jpg/
Notice the steel around the forward dive planes, it has a "lip" that protrudes away from the hull. The Cluster Guard is missing. Having things that are not flush with the hull greatly affects how much noise the submarine generates. That is a photo of the Tareq, the photos posted of the Yunes show the same thing, note the fin on the Yunes, that is bare steel that has ripples in it from wave action (from operating at shallow depths) you would not see that if it was covered in Cluster Guard.
Anon 11:55 AM....I was only jesting! I agree with you 100%.Also not to forget Babak Khorramdin the true national hero of Iran.
Good video showing the amount of work being done
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA_JNyltuWg
Yes,hydrogen gas build up in a poorly ventilated compartment,one spark and...
From the latest information it emerges that Indian navy divers could not get to the stricken submarine for over 2 hours, because there were boiling waters inside...
After that, only one diver at a time, managed to sneek inside, because mangled and twisted interiors...
Previously, it was reported that the Indian navy had planned to acquire and to test a naval version of the Brahmos, and the ripped front of the submarine ( showing similar damage to that on the Kursk) may suggest explosions of new weaponries....
A-F
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