INS Aridhaman: India is getting ready to add more power under the sea. The country’s third nuclear powered ballistic missile submarine, INS Aridhaman, is close to joining service. Defence sources say it could be officially inducted in April or May. Right now the submarine is finishing its final sea trials before it becomes part of the Indian Navy.
After it joins duty, India will have three nuclear ballistic missile submarines under the Strategic Forces Command ready for deployment. This is important because it moves India closer to what experts call “continuous at-sea deterrence”. This means at least one nuclear armed submarine will always be somewhere deep in the ocean and ready to respond if India is attacked.
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At the same time, Pakistan is also increasing its submarine strength. It is expected to get eight advanced Hangor class diesel electric attack submarines from China under a $5 billion deal signed in 2015.
Bigger and More Powerful
INS Aridhaman was built under India’s secret Advanced Technology Vessel programme in Visakhapatnam. It is larger and stronger than INS Arihant and INS Arighaat. The submarine weighs around 7,000 tonnes. Because of its bigger size, it can carry more nuclear capable missiles.
It can launch the K-15 Sagarika missile which has a strike range of 750 km. It can also fire the more powerful K-4 missile that can hit targets up to 3,500 km away. This puts large parts of Asia within its reach.
The submarine will make India’s second strike ability much stronger. Second strike means the country can respond even after suffering a nuclear attack. INS Aridhaman is designed to stay hidden. It uses Indian made sonar systems like USHUS and Panchendriya. It also has special sound absorbing tiles on its body so enemy forces find it very hard to detect.
An 83 megawatt nuclear reactor powers the submarine. Because of this, it can stay underwater for long periods without coming up. In the future, it will operate from Project Varsha, a highly secure submarine base near Visakhapatnam.
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More Submarines coming
India is not stopping here. It is also planning to bring in INS Chakra III, a Russian built nuclear attack submarine, by 2027 or 2028. On top of that, New Delhi is in talks with Germany for a multi billion dollar deal to build six next generation submarines under Project 75(I).
