India recently commissions INS Arihant, completing its nuclear triad and entering the club of handful of countries like Russia, China and France that possess nuclear-powered submarines – SSBNs or Ship Submersible Ballistic Nuclear.
INS Arihant was formally commissioned by Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba in August 2016. However, it was kept secret owing to strategic significance.
India is now close to operationalising the Nuclear triad which means India’s capability to launch nukes from land, air and sea.
Here’s something about INS Arihant:
- INS Arihant is the first of three SSBNs (nuclear-powered submarines with long-range nuclear ballistic missiles) being constructed under Navy’s secretive ATV (advanced technology vessel) programme launched decades ago.
- INS Arihant will be equipped with missiles of ranges 750 km and 3500 km
- The vessel will be armed with the K-15 missiles, which can carry nuclear warheads to a range of 750 kilometres, and with K4 missile, which has a longer range of 3,500 km.
- Arihant has four vertical launch tubes and can either carry 12 K-15 missiles or four larger K-4 missiles and weighs around 6,000 tonnes.
- Russia has helped scientists at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in making the reactor fit into the 10-metre-wide hull of the submarines.
- India will enter the club of countries like Russia, China, France that possess nuclear-powered submarines
- The construction of the second submarine of its class, INS Aridhaman, is also almost complete now, with its delivery slated for 2018.
