Next month, the Russian nuclear submarine, Nerpa, will be delivered to the Indian Navy, which has leased the submarine for a reported $900 million from the Russians for ten years with an option to buy.  The delivery of the new nuclear sub to India, which will be renamed INS Chakra, has been long, strange and ultimately tragic.

Construction of the Nerpa,  an Akula-II class nuclear submarine began in 1993 but was halted for lack of funds. In 2002 secret negotiations began between India and Russia for India to lease two submarines, later reduced to one, as well as other Russian military hardware, including an aircraft carrier and four strategic bombers.

The Nerpa was supposed to be delivered in 2007 but faced numerous construction delays.  In November 2008 when the ship was on sea trials, 20 sailors and technicains died when a fire suppressant system on the sub was accidentally triggered. Reportedly someone had replaced the Freon in the system with a mix of Freon and trichloroethylene, an industrial solvent.

Yakov Agapov, a former senior medical officer with Russia’s Pacific Fleet, said that instead of pure freon, the Nerpa’s firefighting system contained a “lethal” mixture of freon and trichloroethylene, which is commonly used as an industrial solvent and is highly corrosive.

“Trichloroethylene knocks you off instantly,” Agapov said. “If there had been high-quality freon [in the system], the people would have had a few minutes to put on portable breathing equipment.”

He said this mixture was an estimated 5.5 million rubles ($198,500) cheaper than freon.

“They stole the freon and replaced it with a poison, that is why people were killed,” Prikhodko said. “Where that freon went and who stole it remains an open question.”

The Nerpa‘s captain and an engineer were charged with negligence in the deaths, but these charges were dropped last week by a jury in Vladivostok.

Barring other mishaps the Nerpa will be transferred to the Indian Navy next month.