NEW DELHI: Over 40 years after India began
its hunt for nuclear submarines, the 6,000-
tonne INS Arihant quietly sailed out of the
harbour at Visakhapatnam on a misty Monday
morning to begin its extensive sea trials.
While it was "a baby step" towards making
the country's first indigenous nuclear
submarine fully-operational, given that INS
Arihant will now first undergo a whole host of
surface sorties and then "dived" ones with
test-firing of its ballistic missiles over the
next 18 months, it did mark a significant
milestone towards building a long-awaited
credible nuclear weapons triad.
India has the Agni ballistic missiles and
fighters jury-rigged to deliver nukes but the
triad's underwater leg has remained elusive
so far. It will be in place only once INS
Arihant followed by its two under-
construction sister submarines - one
christened INS Aridhaman and the other just
S-4 at present - are ready to undertake
"deterrent patrols" by prowling underwater
for months at end ready to let loose their
missiles if required.
The launch of INS Arihant's sea-acceptance
trials (SATs), which were flagged off by
defence minister Manohar Parrikar and Navy
chief Admiral Robin Dhowan, comes a day
after TOI reported the submarine was all set
for them with its 83 MW pressurized light-
water reactor attaining 100% power and the
completion of its long-drawn harbour-
acceptance trials (HATs).
The real test during the SATs will be the test-
firing of its K-15 submarine-launched ballistic
missiles (SLBMs), which has so far been
tested only from submersible pontoons
around a dozen times. The 750-km range
K-15 - INS Arihant can carry 12 in its four
silos -- is dwarfed by the well over 5,000-km
SLBMs present with the US, Russia and China.
But an over 2,000-km range K-4 SLBM, tested
for the first time in March this year, is also in
the works.
The criticality of SLBMs for deterrence can be
gauged from the fact that even the US and
Russia are ensuring that almost two-thirds of
the strategic warheads they eventually retain
under strategic arms reduction agreements
are such missiles.
Already armed with five nuclear and 51
conventional submarines, China too is now on
course to induct five JIN-class SSBNs
(nuclear-powered submarines armed with
long-range ballistic missiles) with 7,400-km
range JL-2 missiles.
The Indian Navy, in turn, wants at least three
SSBNs and six nuclear-powered attack
submarines (SSNs) in the long-term. It
currently operates one SSN in the shape of
INS Chakra, obtained on a 10-year lease for
Russia for around $1 billion, while
negotiations are underway to acquire another
such boat. While these submarines have
short-range cruise missiles, they are not
armed with nuclear missiles because of
international treaties like the Missile
Technology Control Regime.


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