India Shoves a Klub Up Russian....

Submarine refits can get expensive, even in Russia, particularly when they don't go well. Following up earlier reports that India was not happy with the Klub missile, this latest news confirms what many have been discussing, specifically that the Klub missile has an accuracy problem.

On the heels of the deadlock over the pricing of Russian aircraft carrier Gorshkov, India has refused to take delivery of the latest submarine INS Sindhuvijay from Russia, saying its cruise missile had not performed up to parameters.

The Navy refused to take delivery of the Sindhuvijay, which completed refit at a shipyard near St Petersburg, after its missiles failed to find their targets in six consecutive test firings, a news magazine reported.

The pre-delivery test firings were carried out between September and November.

The report goes on to point out India is turning to France to fix their Klub missiles.

In a contract signed in 2001, India had sent ten Kilo class submarines to Russia for upgradation to make them capable of firing the Klub class land attack cruise missiles.

Sindhuvijay was only the second Indian submarine to be fitted with land attack variants of the missiles. India has purchased 28 Klub class missiles from Russia in 2006 for Rs 844 crore.

Anti-ship variants of the missiles failed in repeated test firings in Indian waters with experts finding the fault to the submarines gyro.

India is now turning to France for new gyros to make the missiles perform in Indian conditions.

I wonder how much money France is selling secrets they discover in working with the Indians on the Klub missile. Yes, that is 'sortof' a joke. I can't imagine Russia would be too happy that France gets to take a close look at the Klub missile problems India is having.

It will be interesting to see how Russia responds. These kinds of problems aren't good for business, and fixing the problem would help soothe the PR backlash. On the other hand, it can get expensive to fix the problem, and Russia has already changed policy to bill for extra costs, and India may not pay for that.

Observing this entire episode though does confirm what many PLAN analysts had been saying, that the Klub was over rated. China didn't want it, claiming the missile wasn't very good. At the time, I didn't believe China, I figured they were just trying to save money, but we now know China was right.