Six months ago, with great fanfare, india
launched its first nuclear submarine, the INS Arihant (Destroyer of
Enemies). This came after over a decade of planning and construction.
India has since revealed that the nuclear power plant for Arihant is
not yet operational, and it may take up to a year to get that taken
care of. Then will come a year of sea trials, followed by the
commissioning of Arihant into service. Even then, Arihant will not be a
regular member of the fleet, but a "technology demonstrator" ship.
That's why Arihant has only four silos for SLBMs (sea launched ballistic Russia retired all its Charlie class subs in the early 1990s. India leased one
from 1988-91, and gained a great deal of familiarity with it. The
Charlie class had eight launch tubes, outside the pressure hull, for
anti-ship cruise missiles. The Arihant has four vertical missile silos.
The exact purpose of vertical launch tubes on the Arihant is unclear.
The navy revealed very little detail on the new sub (which, until two
years ago, the government refused to say anything about.) Access by
photographers was restricted. It's possible that a Sagarika II, which
may already be in development, is designed to fit the Arihant silos.
The
new Indian SSN was long referred to as the ATV (Advanced Technology
Vessel) class. The ATV project was kept secret. One reason for the
secrecy was that so much of the ATV project involved developing a
compact, light water reactor technology that would fit in a submarine.
This 83 MW reactor makes the Arihant underpowered by the standards of
other SSNs, and the Indians give the Arihant's top speed as 55
kilometers an hour.
Once the Arihant class design is proven, a
slightly larger version will be built as a class of three SSBN
(ballistic missile carrying sub). This was how everyone else did it,
including the Chinese and Americans. Get an SSN operational, then
modify the design to include some SLBM launch tubes. India also plans
to build six SSNs based on the Arihant. All ten subs are part of a
program that will eventually cost over $10 billion.
Early next
year, India will take possession of a leased (for ten years) Russian
Akula II nuclear sub. The Akula II is normally armed with cruise
missiles, in its four larger (530mm) torpedo tubes. Since these have a
range of 3,000 kilometers, they cannot be sold to India because of the
Missile Technology Control Regim treaty Russia signed. Instead, the
Indians will use the shorter (300 kilometers) range Klub missile. The
Akula II also has four normal sized torpedo tubes. The Akula II boat
will mainly serve to train Indian sailors who will operate the three
SSBNs (nuclear powered subs carrying SLBMs) and six SSNs (torpedo armed
attack boats.)(Original News)
Posts
