"Gepard" (Cheetah), launched 1999 and was commissioned 5 December 2001, and "Nerpa", laid down in 1993, began sea trials in October 2008. It was leased to India and commissioned by the Indian Navy as INS "Chakra II" in April 2012. Between December 1995–February 1996, submarine K-461 "Volk" was deployed to the Mediterranean along the Russian aircraft carrier , where she monitored activities of several NATO submarines under the captain of 1st rank S. V. Spravtsev. Between April - June 1996, the K-154 Tigr submarine was deployed in the Atlantic, where she detected a US SSBN and tracked it on its combat patrol. On 23 July 1996, its commander, Captain 1st rank Alexey Burilichev, received a Hero of the Russian Federation award. In August 2009, the news media reported that two "Akula"-class submarines operated off the East Coast of the United States, with one of the submarines being identified as a Project 971 Shchuka-B type. U.S. military sources noted that this was the first known Russian submarine deployment to the western Atlantic since the end of the Cold War, raising concerns within U.S. military and intelligence communities. The U.S. Northern Command confirmed that this 2009 "Akula"-class submarine deployment did occur. One of the boats was likely K-335 Gepard that finished relatively lengthy combat patrol between June - September that year  under the command of the Captain of the 1st rank Alexey Vyacheslavovich Dmitrov, who on 15th February 2012 was awarded a title Hero of the Russian federation for the courage shown at work. The other submarine could have been K-154 Tigr under the command of captain E. A. Petrov, given that it performed a combat patrol sometime between March and November 2009. It's unlikely that other submarines of the project 971 could have been present in the Atlantic that year. Pantera submarine was in Severemorsk during summer , while Vepr, Leopard and Volk haven't reported any kind of activity in that year (normally 1-3 submarines of the project are usually active with the North fleet at any given moment). In August 2012, the news media reported that another "Akula"-class submarine operated in the Gulf of Mexico purportedly undetected for over a month, sparking controversy within U.S. military and political circles, with U.S. Senator John Cornyn of the Senate Armed Services Committee demanding details of this deployment from Admiral Jonathan W. Greenert, the Chief of Naval Operations.