INS Arihant – First Indian Indigenous Nuclear Submarine
INS Arihant, India’s long-awaited first Indigenous nuclear powered submarine equipped with ballistic missiles, dubbed as SSBN or a ‘boomer? in Western military Parlance, was formally launched by flooding the dry clock at the heavily guarded shipbuilding centre, Vishakhapatnam on July 26, 2009.
Importants Stats of INS Arihant
Length : 110 m
Weight : 6,000 Ton
Powered by: Single shaft 80 mw nuke power plant.
Speed : 28 km ph (surface; 44 km ph (under water)
Capability : Can fire 700 km range K-15 missile, may later fire cruise missiles.
Why it is important: It is an underwater vessel powered by a nuclear reactor. Other submarines need to rise on surface for recharging, but an N-submarine can stay submerged for long periods. INS-Arihant puts India in elite clue of six nations (along with United States, Russia, France, United Kingdom and China) that possess N-submarine capabilities.
But while India May have yoked open the door of the exclusive club. It will take at least two years for it to sit on the high table. INS-Arihant new has to undergo extensive harbor, sea and weapons trials before it can be fully operational. Each and every system has to be tested and, blushed clean. It will take four sets of flushing and a year before the miniature 80 MW nuclear reactor, and its containment vessel fitted in the submarines hull, attains critically said a senior officer connected with the top secret ATV (Advanced Technology Vessel) project. Moreover, at presence, it will be armed with only the 700 km range two-stage K-15 SLBMs (Submarine launched ballistic missiles), which pale in comparison to the well over 5,000 km range missiles of the United States, Russia and China.
The Prime Minister of India Dr. Monmohan Singh has told that we don’t have any aggressive designs, nor do we seek to threaten any one. He added we seek an external environment in our region and beyond that which is conducive to our peaceful development and the protection of our value systems.
