Useful diagram of Arihant and future weapons fit. Click to enlarge.
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The following article mostly appears to be a Press Release from the Indian Ministry of Defence with little critical analysis. Omissions seem to be:
- no comment that the Nerpa was to have been in Indian hands by late 2009 - this has now slipped to early 2010, and
- if Arihant is a "technology demonstrator" due to be inducted after two more years, where does this leave the advertised simultaneous construction of the second and third Arihants. The claim in August 2009 Second indigenous Indian nuclear submarine to be launched "soon"" therefore seems unfounded and unlikely to happen for at least three years. It would be folly to launch a second Arihant when the first is still under development.
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This Times of India article, December 3, 2009, reports.
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"NEW DELHI: India's first-ever indigenous nuclear submarine, aptly named INS Arihant (annihilator of enemies), should be ready for induction into Navy in another two years or so. With progress finally being made in fulfilling India's long-standing aim to have a credible `nuclear triad', or the ability to fire nukes from land, air and sea, the Navy now wants a well-balanced underwater strategic arm. This will include three SSBNs (nuclear-powered submarines with long-range strategic missiles) and six SSNs (nuclear-powered attack submarines) in the long-term. But much before all this, Navy will begin operating a nuclear submarine by early next year.
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"NEW DELHI: India's first-ever indigenous nuclear submarine, aptly named INS Arihant (annihilator of enemies), should be ready for induction into Navy in another two years or so. With progress finally being made in fulfilling India's long-standing aim to have a credible `nuclear triad', or the ability to fire nukes from land, air and sea, the Navy now wants a well-balanced underwater strategic arm. This will include three SSBNs (nuclear-powered submarines with long-range strategic missiles) and six SSNs (nuclear-powered attack submarines) in the long-term. But much before all this, Navy will begin operating a nuclear submarine by early next year.
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That is when, after several glitches, India will finally get the 12,000-tonne `K-152 Nerpa' Akula-II class submarine from Russia on a 10-year lease. Nerpa, of course, will not come armed with long-range missiles due to international treaties like the Missile Technology Control Regime. But apart from being a potent hunter of enemy submarines, Nerpa will also help train Indian sailors in the complex art of operating, maintaining and deploying nuclear submarines like INS Arihant and its already-approved two follow-on vessels....
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The over 6,000-tonne INS Arihant will be more of `a technology demonstrator', rather than a fully-operational SSBN, for the subsequent follow-on nuclear submarines to follow. At present, the government has sanctioned well over Rs 30,000 crore for the ATV project to construct three submarines, with the third being of a much larger size. The `launch' of the 111-metre long INS Arihant by flooding the dry dock at the Shipbuilding Centre at Visakhapatnam on July 26 this year, in the presence of PM Manmohan Singh, marked India's entry into the select group of five nations -- US, UK, Russia, France and China -- capable of building nuclear submarines. But there is still a long way to go. It's only after its miniature 83 MW pressurised light-water reactor is `fired' sometime next year will INS Arihant begin its extensive sea-acceptance trials.
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Then only will the testing of 700-km range K-15 SLBMs (submarine-launched ballistic missiles) developed by DRDO to arm the submarine, which has four silos on its hump, come into play. K-15, of course, falls way short of the over 5,000-km range missiles of US, Russia and China. The last, for instance, has a huge fleet of 62 submarines, with at least 10 of them nuclear-powered, and is also ready with its new JL-2 SLBM, which has a strike range of over 7,200 km."
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Pete