After becoming a nuclear power in 1974 by testing a nuclear bomb at Pokhran in Rajasthan, India became a nuclear submarine owner when Indian Navy was handed over a made-in-India nuclear submarine- manufactured at Visakhapatanam super secretive Ship Building Center- by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who announced the “Lunch of India’s first indigenous nuclear powered submarine” on 26th July’2009 at Visakhapatanam dry-dock.
Gurusharan Kaur the wife of the Prime Minister unveiled the nameplate of the submarine, which is named ‘Arihant’ meaning destroyer of the enemy in Sanskrit Language.
Incidentally the submarine project named as Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV), begun 25 years ago in 1984 during the regime of the Iron Lady Indira Gandhi after Pokhran nuclear test and was supervised specially by the Prime Minister’s Office all along.
The submarine will not be operational immediately but would pass through various water tests and trials in the Sea. The Navy expects to it to be operational in about two to four years after all the trials are cleared.
It is worthwhile here to mention that Indian Navy has the experience of operating a nuclear submarine when during 1988 to 1991 India got a nuclear submarine on lease from Soviet Union. The Arming of Indian Navy with Nuclear Powered submarine is being done with the Chinese as competitor in mind. However the present capability of Indian Navy is nowhere near the Chinese built up which has10 nuclear powered submarines.
Coming to technical specifications, ‘Arihant’ is 112 meters in length and 11 meters across. It displaces 6000 tons of water compared to US Navy Los Angeles class, which displaces 16000 tons. It has a nuclear reactor generating power of 80MW and a submerged top speed of 34 knots compared to surface speed of 15 knot maximum. It can hold and fire 12 nuclear warheads fitted to ballistic missiles. It shall have crew strength between 90 and 100.
The submarine has substantial technological inputs from Russia and has some 40% indigenous content. The Russian Ambassador to India and their Technologists associated with the ATV project were present on the occasion.
Indian Navy’s fleet have 16 conventionally powered diesel-electric submarines. These require frequent re-surfacing from underwater for air intake to keep firing the engines (and thus are vulnerable to detection by the enemy) compared to nuclear submarines, which can remain underwater, undetected for months.
Thus India became the sixth nuclear submarine power after US, Russia, France, Britain and China.
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