India's 'enemy destroyer' sets sail
By Sudha Ramachandran
With the launch of its first indigenously built nuclear-powered submarine for
sea trials, India has become the sixth country in the world after the United
States, Russia, France, the United Kingdom and China to develop its own nuclear
submarine.
Named INS Arihant (Sanskrit for "destroyer of enemies"), the nuclear
submarine will provide India with the capability to launch nuclear weapons from
sea, adding to its land and air abilities to complete New Delhi's nuclear
weapons triad. What is more, it
brings India a step closer to achieving second-strike capability.
Arihant's launch on July 26 coincided with the 10th anniversary
celebrations of India's victory over Pakistan at Kargil.
"We do not have any aggressive designs nor do we seek to threaten anyone,"
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said at the launching ceremony. "We seek an
external environment in our region and beyond that is conducive to our peaceful
development and the protection of our value systems."
A 6,000-ton vessel, Arihant will be armed with 12 K-15 missiles, each
capable of carrying a five-ton nuclear warhead to a target 750 kilometers away.
Then, 3,500km-range K-X missiles will subsequently replace the K-15s. The
submarine is powered by an 85-megawatt capacity nuclear reactor and can acquire
surface speeds of 22 to 28 km/hour (12-15 knots) and a submerged speed of up to
44 km/hour (24 knots).
Built by the Indian Navy and the Defense Research Development Organization
(DRDO), Arihant was constructed entirely in India. Russia is said to
have provided help in the design of the submarine and miniaturization of the
reactor. Russia's significant contribution to the development of India's first
indigenously built nuclear submarines is evident from the fact that all those
who spoke at the launch function thanked the Russians. The entire Russian
design team and the Russian ambassador to India, V I Trubnikov, were present.
Arihant was launched for trials at the Matsya naval dockyard in
Visakhapatnam on India's east coast. The submarine has since moved out of the
dry dock and has gone underwater. It will undergo extensive trials in the next
two years, beginning with a long series of trials in the harbor to test its
nuclear power plant and auxiliary systems. After the harbor acceptance trials
it will slip into the Bay of Bengal for sea acceptance trials.
The final phase will involve weapons trials while the vessel is submerged.
Since the mid-1990s, DRDO has been simultaneously working on the Sagarika
project. The 700km range K-15 Sagarika missile has been tested from submersible
pontoon launchers off the coast of Visakhapatnam. It will face its real test
when it is fired from the Arihant.
A successful firing would make the submarine ready for induction into the Navy.
India expects Arihant's commissioning to happen in 2011.
The idea of constructing a nuclear submarine was conceived in the 1970s, but it
was only in the following decade that the US$2.9 billion Advanced Technology
Vessel (ATV) project came into being. The ATV project was top secret.
Successive governments denied that the country was building a nuclear
submarine. It was only some months ago that the first official admission that
the country was building a nuclear submarine came out.
Arihant is not the first nuclear submarine in the service of the Indian
Navy. In 1988, India leased a Soviet Charlie class nuclear submarine it renamed INS
Chakra. It was operated by an Indian crew and returned to the Russians
in 1991 when the lease expired.
Arihant is a ballistic nuclear submarine, also known as an SSBN (Ship
submersible ballistic, nuclear). It is not an attack submarine - an SSN - that
is designed to hunt and kill surface and undersea vessels. Arihant's main
purpose is nuclear deterrence, not attack.
"INS Arihant is a huge asset to the navy," a retired scientist who
worked on the ATV project told Asia Times Online. Listing the advantages of a
nuclear submarine, the scientist said, "Unlike the 16 diesel-electric
conventional submarines that currently constitute the Indian Navy's submarine
fleet, which have to keep hitting the surface of the water to breathe in air to
charge their engines, a nuclear submarine has endless underwater endurance. It
runs silent and it runs deep, and it runs twice as fast as its conventional
counterparts. It keeps itself hidden from an adversary's probing eyes and is
far less vulnerable to detection than a conventional submarine."
"For a country like India that follows a "no-first use" nuclear policy,
possession of a nuclear submarine is immense," a senior officer in the
submarine wing of India's Eastern Naval Command at Visakhapatnam said. A first
strike by an adversary could result in India's airbases and nuclear missile
infrastructure being taken out, thus crippling its capacity to strike back.
This is where a nuclear submarine plays a big role.
"A nuclear submarine has the capability not only to survive a first strike but
also it can strike back with devastating consequences for the aggressor. It
serves as a huge deterrent," he said.
Even as Arihant's trials get underway, two other SSBNs are under
construction and will probably be followed by more. Over the next few years,
this troika of SSBNs will up make the third leg of India's nuclear triad.
Besides, later this year, India will take delivery of a 12,000-tonne Akula-II
class nuclear-powered attack submarine on a 10-year lease from Russia.
Although Arihant is due to be commissioned by 2011, not everyone
believes that this is possible. Experts say that a lot remains to be done.
First, several fitments have to be made to the submarine. This is expected to
take at least a year. The big challenge for scientists is the nuclear reactor
on board the submarine. They will have to see that it attains criticality
without any hitches. A reasonable timeframe for Arihant to become fully
operational is six years.
Naval officials say that if more time will be needed to make Arihant fully
operational, this is because it is a pioneer. "It the first of its class [for
India," Vice Admiral A K Singh (retired), a former Captain of INS Chakra
told the Press Trust of India (PTI). "In the first of the class there are a
large number of checks to be carried out," he said, adding that India's second
or third nuclear submarines will definitely come out faster.
The launch of the Arihant is a major step in India's quest for a minimal
but credible nuclear deterrent. But even as scientists and officials cheered
the Arihant as it quietly slipped under water on Sunday, there is
disquiet among India's strategic community; China has 10 nuclear-powered
submarines and is building an equal number more. Naval officials say that India
has a long way to go before it can match China's nuclear arsenal, hence its
focus on building a credible deterrence.
Sudha Ramachandran is an independent journalist/researcher based in
Bangalore.
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