Arihant Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) - Armament
India discussed the potential of nuclear powered submarines as early as the 1960’s. The development of the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) submarine program didn't actually begin until 1984. The main aim of the ATV program was to equip India with a second strike platform capable of launching retaliatory strikes against hostile states. India’s indigenous Arihant-class SSBN was developed under the ATV program by the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), which is accountable to the Defense Ministry. On 22 September 2006 the S1 naval reactor prototype was declared operational, and on 26 July 2009 India launched its first indigenous SSBN, INS Arihant (hence the possibly puzzling S2 designator). The prototype S1 reactor was developed by the Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC), specifically by a group called PRP Center. PRP originally stood for “Plutonium Reprocessing Project”. It has been suggested that India received considerable assistance from the Russians for developing the prototype reactor. The entire submarine propulsion plant with primary, secondary, electrical, propulsion systems and integrated control system was replicated in a land-based submarine hull. This land-based test facility was very similar in appearnce to the American Westinghouse STR Mark 1 (S1W) prototype reactor, circa 1954. The world’s first “underway on nuclear power” by USS Nautilus came on 17 January 1955. The Arihant-class submarine is a class of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines built for the Indian Navy. They were developed under the $2.9 billion Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project to design and build nuclear-powered submarines. The lead ship of the class, INS Arihant , was launched in 2009 and, after extensive sea trials, was confirmed to be commissioned in August 2016. Initially, as many as three vessels were planned to be built to this design. The initial intention of the project was to design nuclear-powered fast attack submarines. However, after India's nuclear tests at the Pokhran Test Range in 1998 , the project was re-aligned towards the design of a ballistic missile submarine to complete India's nuclear triad (nuclear weapon delivery). So it developed that the next ships in the class after the lead ship will be larger, with 8 missile launch tubes to carry 8 K-4 missiles and a more powerful pressurized water reactor than INS Arihant. These new ships eight launch tubes that can carry up to 24 K-15 Sagarika missiles with a range of 750 km [for akistan] or 8 K-4 missiles with a range of 3,500 km [for China]. INS Arihant has four silos on its hump to carry either 12 K-15s or four K-4s.
INS Arihant carries sea-based nuclear weapons handled by the Strategic Forces Command (SFC) under the Nuclear Command Authority (NCA). The NCA compromises the Political Council headed by the Prime Minister and the Executive Council headed by the National Security Advisor (NSA), who advises the political council on the use of nuclear weapons. Sea-based deterrence requires mated warheads, it is a departure from the past when India kept its warheads and delivery systems separate. There are additional protocols to keep civilian control over the release of nuclear weapons. On 05 November 2018, India announced that its Ship Submersible Ballistic Nuclear Submarine (SSBN), the INS Arihant, had completed its first deterrent patrol. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “India’s pride, nuclear submarine INS Arihant successfully completed its first deterrence patrol!” marking the first official acknowledgement by New Delhi of a sea-based nuclear deterrent.
Stressing the significance of the successful deployment of INS Arihant for the completion of India's nuclear triad, the Prime Minister congratulated the crew and all involved in the achievement which puts India among a handful of countries having the capability to design, construct and operate SSBNs. Noting that the indigenous development of the SSBN and its operationalisation attest to the country's technological prowess and the synergy and coordination among all concerned, the Prime Minister thanked them for their dedication and commitment in realising this pioneering accomplishment enhancing immensely the country's security.
The Prime Minister commended the courage and commitment of India's brave soldiers and the talent and perseverance of its scientists, whose untiring efforts transformed the scientific achievement of nuclear tests into establishment of an immensely complex and credible nuclear triad, and dispelled all doubts and questions about India's capability and resolve in this regard. The Prime Minister stated that the people of India aspire for a 'Shaktimaan Bharat' (Strong India) and building a New India. They have strived tirelessly to overcome all challenges in this path. He stressed that a strong India will fulfill the hopes and aspirations of over a billion Indians and will also be an important pillar for global peace and stability, especially in a world full of uncertainties and concerns.
The Prime Minister extended greetings to the participants and their families on the occasion of Deepawali, the Festival of Light. He expressed the hope that just as light dispels darkness and all fear, INS Arihant will be harbinger of fearlessness for the country. As a responsible nation, India has put in place a robust nuclear command and control structure, effective safety assurance architecture and strict political control, under its Nuclear Command Authority. It remains committed to the doctrine of Credible Minimum Deterrence and No First Use, as enshrined in the decision taken by the Cabinet Committee on Security in its meeting chaired by the then Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee on January 04, 2003.
INS Arihant
The Arihant Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) was difficult to understand. Just as China built socialism "with Chinese characteristics" [in Deng Xiaopeng's immortal phrase], India has built an atomic submarine "with Indian characteristics". Before it was developed as India’s first SSBN, the Arihant was planned to be a conventionally armed, nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN).
The "normal" program, that is, the programs of the USA, UK, and the Soviet Union, all followed a consistent pattern in which a nuclear powered attack submarine design was modified to carry long range strategic ballistic missiles. Contrary to other countries, the first efforts of France were directed into the building of a ballistic missile submarine. In all cases, however, the submarines were all "operational" rather than test assets [though the status of the Chinese Xia class SSBN was uncertain].
Countries have distinctive national styles of military technology. American hardware is sophisticaed, the product of a system where cost over-runs and schedule delays are normal. The Soviet system tended towards less sophiticated systems that were easier to produce and simplere to operate. The Indian indigenous arms industry is characterized by bizarrely protracted development cycles, measured in decades rather than years, which as often as not fail to ever result in an operational weapon [in American missile defense circles, this is known as "reserach forever"]. The India caste system is divided among the Brahmans [priests], the Kshatriyas [warriors], Vaishyas [merchants], and Shudras [laborers]. At times it seems that indigenous India weapons programs exsist for the amusement of the Brahmans rather than the use of the Kshatriyas, and the ATV is no exception.
One MOD report from 2011 noted "The Government has not been able to put in place a responsive, dynamic and effectivedefence procurement regime. The complete process suffers from indifference, apathy, inefficiency and lassitude. Old bureaucratic mindsets and penchant for status-quoism inhibit forward thinking.... The Indian defence acquisition process is fraught with unacceptable and undue delays at all stages and most of the acquisition schemes result in foreclosure. Procedural propriety and integrity has overtaken the primary aim of affecting positive and timely procurement."
The ATV had four larger missile tubes for the medium-range K-15 nuclear missile, with each tube able to accomodate three smaller tubes for the shorter range BO-5 SLBM. The four medium range missiles do not constitute much in the way of a deterrent force, while the 700 kilometer range BO-5 does not provide much in the way of a patrol area in which the submarine might hide. The Advanced Technology Vessel literally is a technology vessel rather than an operational capability.
The plan for the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) until the late 1980s, was to build an SSN - a fast-moving deep-diving nuclear-powered attack submarine, which would hunt surface ships. Around the time India leased a Charlie-I class nuclear-powered attack submarine from the Soviet Union, which happened in 1988, planning veered towards building a submarine carrying ballistic missiles. The hull design was lengthened and the SSN quietly transformed into an SSBN able to fit as many as 12 SLBMs.
The Indian Navy pitched for a submarine-launched nuclear missile to boost the nation's deterrence capabilities. "With nuclear proliferation posing a greater threat along with Weapons of Mass Destruction, our unilateral policy of no-first-use necessitates that India possesses a credible and survivable nuclear deterrent, including submarine-launched," Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta said pn 08 October 2008. India had in February 2008 tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile for the first time that would take another three years to be fully operational.
INS Arihant (destroyer of enemies), is intrinsic to India's doctrine of 'no first use of nuclear weapons'. It is a credible nuclear deterrent and a weapons platform that would have the capability of surviving a first strike from an enemy and launching a debilitating second strike in retaliation. The search for such a platform- a nuclear submarine, had gripped the attention of the country's military planners and defence scientists for nearly three decades.
The nuclear haves increasingly relying on sea-based nuclear deterrence in preference to land and air segments. India has a number of foreign-produced cruise missile systems in its arsenal, to include Exocet, Styx, Starbright, Sea Eagle, and perhaps the Russian Sunburn supersonic missile. It also has some indigenous cruise missile systems under development to include the Sagarika and Lakshya variant.
Arihant-class SSBNs are fitted with an integrated sonar suite known as USHUS, which was developed in India by the Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL) of the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), and built by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) in Bangalore. USHUS is a unified submarine sonar and tactical control system, which includes passive, surveillance, ranging, intercept, obstacle avoidance and active sonar subsystems. Twin flank passive sonar arrays are installed on the hull, along with an underwater communications subsystem. USHUS had been used operationally on India’s modernized, Russian-designed, Kilo-class dieselelectric submarines, and likely will be installed on India’s planned fleet of indigenous SSNs. According to some accounts India planned to have as many as five nuclear submarines capable of carrying missiles with nuclear warheads. Once the vessel is completed, it may be equipped with Danush/Sagarika cruise missiles and an advanced sonar system. However, according to some analysts the most probable missile for the Indian submarine would be the Yahont anti-ship cruise missile designed by NPO Mashinostroyeniya.
Media reports speak of a plan to build by 2015 a fleet of three nuclear submarines, each carrying 12 nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles. One report claims that the ATV will carry either 14 SAGARIKA cruise missiles with a range of 750 km or 4-5 AGNI-3 with a range of 3500 km, along with a few torpedoes.
The SSBN fleet will be housed on the east coast at a new naval base in Rambilli, a few kilometers south of Visakhapatnam, where nearly 3,000 acre of land has been acquired for India's first strategic base, to be manned entirely by military personnel. Unlike the narrow single channel in Visakhapatnam, it will offer the nuclear fleet direct access into the sea. The first phase of the project, costing approximately Rs 1,500 crore, was to be ready by 2011.
By 2012 it seemed that Arihant would be armed with 12 nuclear-tipped submarine launched missile K-15 with a range of 750 km. Plans were then afoot to equip it with four K-4 Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs) with a range of 3,500 km later. However, the first homegrown 6,000 tonne Arihant nuclear submarine was equipped to carry a dozen K-15 (750-km) or four K-4 (3,500-km) ballistic missiles. INS Arihant was slated to begin extensive sea trials in February-March 2013 after the ongoing harbour-acceptance trials.
Prasun K Sengupta concluded that the ATV was purely a technology demonstration project which will never become an operational vessel and never be commissioned into service. Even externally, it won't in any way resemble an operational submarine, contrary to speculation in mainstream Indian newsmedia. By this view, a full-scale operational India-built SSBN is at least a decade away. Everything depends on the first unit successfully undergoing sea trials. This alone will take another five years and only if the trials are successful will the production-series SSBN be built.
The hump was empty as of 2014 and it could accommodate either eight VLS cells for BrahMos-type missiles or four 8,500km-range SLBMs.
The country's first indigenously built nuclear submarine headed for sea trials in December 2014, was to join the fleet in late 2016. In the meantime, India was in talks with Russia to lease a second nuclear-propelled submarine. The government turned to industrial group Larsen & Toubro Ltd, which built the hull for the first submarine, to manufacture two more nuclear submarines.
By late 2015 India's own nuclear-powered ballistic missile INS Arihant submarine was due to be commissioned in 2016 at the Navy Shipbuilding Centre in Visakhapatnam. At that time a second boat, possibly named INS Aridaman, was already under construction, with at least two more slated to be built.
The commissioning of INS Arihant completed India’s nuclear triad or the ability to launch strategic weapons from land, air and sea. The second Arihant-class submarine, called INS Arighat, was reportedly launched in November and was likely to join the naval fleet in 2021. Navy officials are not authorised to speak about the secret program to build nuclear ballistic missile submarines. India plans to deploy four Arihant-class boats to reinforce India’s strategic deterrent force at sea. This endeavour does not come under the 1999 submarine-building plan.
On Monday, The Hindu reported that India’s only operational nuclear ballistic missile submarine, INS Arihant, was out of action for about 10 months last year due to an accident. The report raises more questions than it answered due to its glaring technical and operational inconsistencies. First, the news item stated that the Arihant’s propulsion compartment was damaged after water entered it, as a hatch on the rear side was left open by mistake. The submarine has no hatches there. The Arihant is based on Russian double hull design with a sealed nuclear reactor section. Except for the latest French nuclear submarines that have a hatch above the reactor for quicker refuelling, no other country with nuclear submarines have such a system. Although the Arihant’s core is not designed to operate for the submarine’s lifetime and would need refuelling, it does not have a hatch. To refuel, the hull will have to be cut open and welded back, as is the case for the Russian nuclear attack submarine, the Akula-II class that India leased and operated as INS Chakra. There are no external hatches in the compartment that houses the steam turbine, gearbox, generator and shaft that drives the propeller. Under normal circumstances, it is not possible for sea water to enter the submarine, and certainly not via a ‘non-existent hatch’. It also not possible for a modern submarine that has various sensors to not have a warning system about an open hatch in any other area of the submarine critical for its survival.
INS Arighaat
The second ship submersible ballistic nuclear (SSBN) submarine after INS Arihant was initially to be named INS Aridhaman. The name was later chang to Arighaat, meaning .By 2013 the work on the second indigenous nuclear submarine named INS Aridhaman had taken off and work on third submarine were to start soon. The advantages of a nuclear powered submarine include its ability to remain under water for more than three months without surfacing. The submarine is hard to detect due to emission of minimal sound signature, causing difficulty to enemy aircraft and anti-submarines in terms of detection. Once the nuclear submarine is inducted, India will become the sixth operator of nuclear submarines in the world, after the United States, Russia, France, Britain and China.These submarines will be armed first with the 750-km K-15 and at a later stage with the 3,500-km K-4 SLBMs (submarine-launched ballistic missiles).
In December 2017 Indian Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the launch of the second indigenously designed Arihant-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) on order for the Indian Navy (IN). The launch of Arighaat , which took place during a low-key ceremony held at the Ship Building Centre (SBC) at Visakhapatnam on 19 November 2017, entailed flooding the dry dock housing the SSBN to enable it to float into the surrounding waters for additional fitment ahead of its commissioning in 2020-21. India had already started groundwork to develop its next successor with the development of next-generation Ballistic Missile Submarine. Arighat will be succeeded in the dry dock by two similar SSBNs that have been temporarily designated S4 and S4*. S4 and S4* would be armed with K-4 and K-5 SLBMs. They will be India’s Second line of SSBN by the time all 6 Nuclear Submarines are operational.
INS Arighat (originally named INS Aridhaman) is the 2nd boat in India’s Arihantclass of SSBNs. The keel was laid in 2011. The ship was launched at the Ship Building Center in Visakhapatnam on 19 November 2017. Final outfitting and sea trials will be performed before commissioning in 2020 - 2021. INS Arighat had several notable design changes. It featured 8 x “universal” (large) SLBM tubes (twice the number on INS Arihant), each capable of holding 3 x K-15 Sagaril short-range SLBMs or 1 x K-4 long-range SLBM. The Longer hull with greater displacement was propelled by a more powerful PWR rated at about 100 MWt. More advanced sensors featured the indigenous USHUS unified submarine sonar and tactical control system used for detecting and tracking submarines, torpedoes, as well as underwater obstacles. It can also be used for underwater communication. The Rafael broadband expendable anti-torpedo counter-measures system is installed. INS Arighat can achieve a maximum speed of 12–15 knots on the surface and 24 knots underwater.
The next two Arihant-class SSBNs, initially named the S4 and S4* (S4 'star’), displace over 1,000 tons more than the INS Arihant and are fitted with eight “universal” SLBM tubes amidships, like the IHS Arighat. Originally, S4 was to be the last Arihant-class SSBN before proceeding with construction of the larger S5-class SSBNs. The S-4* was approved in 2012 when it became clear that the S-5 would have a longer development cycle than originally planned and would result in the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) construction line at the Ship Building Centre (SBC) at Visakhapatnam being idle.
India launched a fourth nuclear submarine on 23 October 2024. The ballistic missile submarine was built at the Visakhapatnam Shipbuilding Centre in the southeast of the country. The new submarine consists of almost 75% locally produced parts. As the publication recalled, the first Indian-built nuclear submarine, Arihant, was commissioned in 2016. The second, Arighat, entered service with the Navy at the end of August this year. The third submarine was named Aridhaman and would be commissioned in 2025 year.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/deep-diving-into-the-facts-about-ins-arihant-accident/articleshow/62468708.cms
On 1 December, Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba revealed that a Rs 60,000 crore project to build six indigenous nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs) had been kicked-off by the Navy. SSNs are conventionally armed submarines powered by nuclear reactors. Unlike the SSBNs, these boats do not carry nuclear-tipped missiles. Design work for the submarines, displacing around 6,000 tonnes, is currently underway at the submarine design centre in Gurgaon.
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