INS ''Sindhukirti'' (S61) (''Glory of the Sea'') is the seventh diesel-electric

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

of the

Indian Navy The Indian Navy is the maritime branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy. As a blue-water navy, it operates sig ...

. She was built at the

Admiralty Shipyard The JSC Admiralty Shipyards (russian: link=no, Адмиралтейские верфи) (''formerly Soviet Shipyard No. 194'') is one of the oldest and largest shipyards in Russia, located in Saint Petersburg. The shipyard's building ways can ac ...

and

Sevmash JSC PO Sevmash ( rus, ОАО «ПО „Севмаш“», Севмаш, СМПСМП, "Severodvinsk Machine Building Plant") is a Russian joint-stock company (JSC) under the vertically-integrated United Shipbuilding Corporation. The shipbuildin ...

in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. ''Sindukirti'' was commissioned on 9 December 1989 in the Soviet Union, with Cdr. Ramdas signing her commissioning orders. She underwent a protracted "medium refit" from June 2006 until May 2015 at the

Hindustan Shipyard Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) is a shipyard located in Visakhapatnam on the east coast of India. History Founded as the ''Scindia Shipyard'', it was built by industrialist Walchand Hirachand as a part of The Scindia Steam Navigation Company ...

Visakhapatnam , image_alt = , image_caption = From top, left to right: Visakhapatnam aerial view, Vizag seaport, Simhachalam Temple, Aerial view of Rushikonda Beach, Beach road, Novotel, Novotel Visakhapatnam, INS Kursura (S20), INS ...

. The midlife upgrade was projected to be completed in 3 years but numerous delays postponed the submarine's return. Having spent one third of her life in refit, she finally returned to service on 23 May 2015.

Description

''Sindhukiriti'' has a length of

overall Overalls, also called bib-and-brace overalls or dungarees, are a type of garment usually used as protective clothing when working. The garments are commonly referred to as a "pair of overalls" by analogy with "pair of trousers". Overalls were ...

, a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of and a

draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vessel ...

of . She displaces surfaced, submerged and has a maximum diving depth of . The complement is about 68, including 7 officers and 61 sailors. The submarine has a shaft with one seven-blade propeller. It is powered by two diesel generators, each of which produce . It also has an electric motor with of power. She can achieve a maximum speed of when on surface and when submerged.

Operational service and refit

INS ''Sindhukirti'' was commissioned on 9 December 1989, by Cdr. Kannan Ramdas. She is the seventh of the ten ''Sindhughosh''-class submarines.

Midlife Medium refit

''Sindhukirti'' was docked at

in June 2006 for a midlife refit which included installation of

USHUS USHUS is an integrated sonar system developed by the Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL) of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), India, for use in submarines of the Indian Navy. It is primarily designed to be ...

sonar and the Klub-S cruise missiles and other hull works. It was originally planned to send her to Russia for the upgrade, like her sister ships ''Sindhughosh'', ''Sindhuvir'', ''Sindhuratna'', and ''Sindhuvijay''. However, it was decided that ''Sindhukirti'' would be upgraded indigenously. Hindustan Shipyard was selected for the refit due to political wrangling, against the wishes of the navy staff. HSL had a history of prolonging submarine refits, taking ten years to upgrade each of the Vela-class submarines ''Vela'' and ''Vagli''. ''Sindhukirtis refit was scheduled for 3 years, but the refit dragged on as problems arose. The ship became known as the ''dockyard queen''. In 2009,

Admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...

Sureesh Mehta Admiral Sureesh Mehta, PVSM, AVSM (born August 18, 1947) served as 19th Chief of the Indian Navy from 31 October 2006 until 31 August 2009. He was succeeded by Nirmal Kumar Verma. He is the first service chief from India's armed forces to be born ...

explained, "That kind of expertise did not exist in India before and this is for the first time that we are trying it out here. Instead of sending them to Russia all the way, this one is being offloaded to Hindustan Shipyards. There are some problems in their procurement procedures. It takes a little longer than is expected". While a Russian shipyard would deploy 200 workers in three shifts to complete the refit in two years, HSL deployed only 50 workers to work on ''Sindhukirti''. After nine years in refit, ''Sindhukirti'' finally returned to sea on 23 May 2015 and is currently active.

In popular culture

INS ''Sindhukirti'' was featured in series 'Breaking point Indian Submariners' which was released on

Veer by Discovery Discovery Channel India is the Indian version of Discovery Channel operated by Warner Bros. Discovery for the Indian subcontinent. It is available in eight languages including Hindi, English, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali and Marathi wh ...

YouTube channel.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sindhukirti (S61) Sindhughosh-class submarines Attack submarines Ships built in the Soviet Union Ships built at Admiralty Shipyard 1989 ships Submarines of India