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Showing posts with the label Arihant Class Submarine

India Submarine INS Arihant SSBN (Credits- Sub Brief)

India’s Undersea Deterrent ( Source- The Diplomat / Author- Saurav Jha)

INS Arihant ( Image credits- Indian Navy) Source- The Diplomat Author- Saurav Jha In February this year, it was reported that India’s first ballistic missile submarine (SSBN), the indigenously built INS Arihant had successfully completed sea trials, including several weapon release tests. The Arihant is expected to be formally commissioned soon, and is likely to serve in a training and force development role as well as providing a limited deterrence, especially once a new intermediate range submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM) becomes operational. Three more ships of the Arihant class with enhanced features are planned, with two already under construction even as a new generation SSBN design is being readied. If the move to create back-up systems such as long-range communication facilities, dedicated hardened bases and support vessels is taken into account, it is clear that India is committed to achieving a nuclear triad, which would be in accordance with it

Look out, China: India's Lethal Ballistic Missile Sub Is Ready to Go ( Source- The National Interest / Author- Dave Majumdar)

INS Arihant ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Indian Navy) Source- The National Interest Author- Dave Majumdar New Delhi’s first indigenous nuclear-powered submarine has passed all of its sea-trials and is ready to be formally inducted into the Indian Navy. According to Indian media reports, the nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine has been undergoing a series of diving tests and weapons trials over the past five months. “It has passed all tests and in many things has surpassed our expectations,” a senior India Navy official told the Economic Times. “Technically the submarine can now be commissioned at any time.” Called the Arihant, the 6,000-ton displacement submarine—which draws heavily from Russian technology—carries twelve indigenous K-15 Sagarika missiles with a range of 435 miles. Or, alternatively, it can carry four K-4 nuclear-tipped ballistic missile—each with a range of 2,200 miles. However, unlike U.S. ballistic missile submarines, the Indian

Arihant: How Russia helped deliver India’s baby boomer ( Source- Russia & India Report)

INS Arihant ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Indian navy) Source- Russia & India Report The India-Russia partnership has resulted in a string of successful defence projects, but none is more strategically important than INS Arihant, India’s first indigenously developed nuclear powered ballistic missile submarine. The 6000 ton Arihant, which has completed sea trials, is likely to undergo its maiden missile test-firing this month. The test will in all likelihood involve the 700 kilometre range K-15 submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) or the 3,500 kilometre K-4. If successful, India will finally be able to complete its nuclear triad, giving the country’s strategic planners multiple options if it comes to a nuclear confrontation. A nuclear triad refers to the three components of atomic weapons delivery: strategic bombers, intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and SLBMs. Of the three elements of the triad, the SLBMs are considered the most importa

PLAN expansion into the Indian Ocean- What can India do?

PLAN Type- 39 Song Class Submarine ( Source- Wikimedia Commons / Author- SteKrrueBe) This news in Indian media was long coming. A Chinese submarine docked in Karachi port creeping close to the Indian territory and covering the entire length of the Indian coast from east to the west. It was a signal to all those concerned the PLAN has come of age and it is a power to be reckoned with and should not be under estimated. People's Liberation Army Navy is the official naval wing of the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army. For the  greater part of their history, PLAN was a brown water navy, meaning that  it was primed for coastal security and did not possess the capability for power projection outside their realm. But with the massive economic liberalisation, China finally had the resources to build up on their navy. China also attained the capability for mass production that ensured that they could field more ships in lesser time than any other navy in the world. China developed th

Asia's Coming Nuclear Nightmare ( Source- The National Interest / Author- David Brewster)

INS Chakra ( Image source- Wikimedia Commons / Credits- Ajai Shukla) Source- The National Interest Author- David Brewster While the world focuses on the dangers that a nuclear-armed Iran could present in the Middle East, a potentially more dangerous and unstable nuclear proliferation is occurring in the Indian Ocean. In the coming years India, Pakistan, and perhaps China will likely deploy a significant number of nuclear weapons at sea in the Indian Ocean. This could further destabilize already unstable nuclear relationships, creating a real risk of a sea-based exchange of nuclear weapons. Observers have long seen India-Pakistan nuclear rivalry as the most unstable in the world, and South Asia as the most likely location of nuclear conflict. This is not just academic speculation. Foreign diplomats have been evacuated from Islamabad on several occasions from fears of an impending nuclear exchange with India. India has a “no first use” (NFU) nuclear-weapons pol

Watch Out, China: India Is Building 6 Nuclear Attack Submarines ( Source- The National Interest/ Author- Akhilesh Pillalamarri)

INS Arihant ( Source- Indian Navy) Source- The National Interest Author- Akhilesh Pillalamarri The Indian government will be launching a major naval expansion soon that will include the indigenous construction of seven stealth frigates and six nuclear powered attack submarines. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet approved plans to build the 13 new ships at about a cost of one trillion rupees or about $16 billion on Tuesday. The expansion would triple the size of India’s nuclear submarine fleet and comes on the heels of Narendra Modi’s pitch to increase the proportion of indigenous defense production in India. In a recent speech, Modi said that he would like the percentage of domestic procurement in India to increase to 70 percent. According to The Times of India, this decision comes at a time when India has a “critical necessity” to boost its “overall deterrence capability” in the Indian Ocean, especially the region stretching from the Persian Gulf to the St

Arihant stirs up the ocean ( Source- The Russia and India Report , Author- Rakesh Krishnan Simha)

INS Arihant ( Image credits- DRDO/ Indian Navy) Source- The Russia & India Report Author- Rakesh Krishnan Simha In June 2012 a nuclear-powered attack submarine of the Russian Navy quietly entered the Gulf of Mexico. Armed with long-range nuclear cruise missiles, the Akula class vessel operated undetected for several weeks and its movement in strategic US waters was only confirmed after it left the area. The silent  Akula  left a lot of red faces in the American defence establishment in its wake. In November 2013 Russia  launched  its advanced stealth diesel-electric Novorossiysk . The Project 636 submarine is said to be virtually undetectable when submerged. “Our potential opponents call it the ‘Black Hole’ due to the very low noise emission and visibility of the submarine,” Konstantin Tabachny, the captain of the  Novorossiysk , told the media. “To be undetectable is the main quality for a submarine. And this whole project really fits its purpose.” After deca

India’s ‘Annihilator of Enemies’ Submarine Begins Sea Trials ( Source- The National Interest, Author- Zachary Keck)

INS Arihant ( Image credits- DRDO/Indian Navy) Source- The National Interest Author- Zachary Keck India’s first indigenous ballistic missile nuclear submarine (SSBN) began its maiden sea trials today, a senior Indian defense official announced. On Monday, Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar announced that  INS Arihant --which roughly translates to “annihilator of enemies”-- pulled out of Visakhapatnam Harbor this morning to begin its long awaited first sea trials.  The Hindu   described in the scene  in unusually poetic language, writing, “ INS Arihant,  with a helicopter flying over it, emerged from the breakwaters into the Bay of Bengal even as low hanging mist made it difficult to view the submarine. The submarine glided in [the] Bay partially submerged as part of its sea trials. INS Arihant  majestically sailed north in the Bay along the coast, partially submerged. After about an hour later it disappeared into the mist.” In some ways, the event was decade

The Indian Navy Has a Big Problem: The Subsurface Dilemma ( Source- The National Interest, Author- Iskander Rehman)

INS Chakra ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ Author- Indian Navy Source- The National Interest Author- Iskander Rehman The United States’ strategic reorientation towards the Indo-Pacific has been accompanied by a heightened interest in matters maritime. In contrast to the primary theaters of the Cold War, the region’s strategic and economic geography is strongly defined by its wide oceans, narrow choke points and contested waterways. As a result, the naval profiles of Asia’s two great rising powers, India and China, have attracted a hitherto unprecedented level of attention. Meanwhile, the very nature of maritime competition appears to be undergoing a radical transformation. The proliferation of precision-guided weaponry has resulted in the erection of increasingly formidable land-based reconnaissance-strike complexes, structured around dense constellations of anti-access and area denial (A2/AD) complexes. The growing ability of coastal states to both locate and pro