The ''Arihant''-class ( in
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
) is a class of
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
n
nuclear-powered
Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...
ballistic missile submarine
A ballistic missile submarine is a submarine capable of deploying submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) with nuclear warheads. The United States Navy's hull classification symbols for ballistic missile submarines are SSB and SSBN – t ...
s being built for the
Indian Navy
The Indian Navy is the maritime branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy. As a blue-water navy, it operates sig ...
. They were developed under the ''Advanced Technology Vessel'' (ATV) project to design and build nuclear-powered submarines.
These vessels are classified as 'strategic strike nuclear submarines' by India.
The lead vessel of the class, was launched in 2009, and after extensive sea trials, was confirmed to be commissioned in August 2016.
''Arihant'' holds the distinction of being the first ballistic missile submarine to have been built by a country other than one of the five
permanent members of the United Nations Security Council
The permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (also known as the Permanent Five, Big Five, or P5) are the five sovereign states to whom the UN Charter of 1945 grants a permanent seat on the UN Security Council: China, France, R ...
.
History
In December 1971, during the
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military confrontation between India and Pakistan that occurred during the Bangladesh Liberation War in East Pakistan from 3 December 1971 until the
Pakistani capitulation in Dhaka on 16 Decem ...
,
US President
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
sent a
carrier battle group
A carrier battle group (CVBG) is a naval fleet consisting of an aircraft carrier capital ship and its large number of escorts, together defining the group. The ''CV'' in ''CVBG'' is the United States Navy hull classification code for an airc ...
named
Task Force 74
Task Force 74 was a naval task force that has existed twice. The first Task Force 74 was a mixed Allied force of Royal Navy, Royal Australian Navy, and United States Navy ships which operated against Japanese forces from 1943 to 1945 during the ...
, led by the nuclear-powered into the international waters of the
Bay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line between ...
in a show of force. Task Force 74 remained in international waters, where it was legally entitled to be. The records of Nixon-Kissinger communications show no contingency nor any plan under which ''Enterprise'' would enter Indian or Pakistani waters, or otherwise intervene in the conflict. In response, the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
sent a submarine armed with nuclear missiles from
Vladivostok
Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Zolotoy Rog, Golden Horn Bay on the Sea ...
to trail the US task force. The event demonstrated the significance of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile submarines to then
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
Indira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 ...
.
Following the 1974
Smiling Buddha
Operation Smiling BuddhaThis test has many code names. Civilian scientists called it "Operation Smiling Buddha" and the Indian Army referred to it as ''Operation Happy Krishna''. According to United States Military Intelligence, ''Operation H ...
nuclear test, the Director of Marine Engineering (DME) at Naval Headquarters initiated a technical feasibility study for an indigenous nuclear propulsion system (Project 932).
The
Indian Navy
The Indian Navy is the maritime branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy. As a blue-water navy, it operates sig ...
's ''Advanced Technology Vessel'' project to design and construct a nuclear submarine took shape in the 1990s. Then
Defence Minister
A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...
George Fernandes
George Mathew Fernandes (3 June 1930 – 29 January 2019) was an Indian trade unionist, statesman, and journalist, who served as the 22nd Defence Minister of India from 1998 until 2004. He was a member of Lok Sabha for over 30 years, starting f ...
confirmed the project in 1998. The initial intent of the project was to design nuclear-powered fast attack submarines, though following
nuclear tests conducted by India in 1998 at
Pokhran Test Range
Pokhran is a village and a municipality located, outside of Jaisalmer city in the Jaisalmer district of the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is a remote location in the Thar Desert region and served as the site for India's first underground nucle ...
and the Indian pledge of
no first use
In nuclear ethics and deterrence theory, No first use (NFU) refers to a type of pledge or policy wherein a nuclear power formally refrains from the use of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in warfare, except for as a seco ...
, the project was re-aligned towards the design of a ballistic missile submarine in order to complete India's
nuclear triad
A nuclear triad is a three-pronged military force structure that consists of land-launched nuclear missiles, nuclear-missile-armed submarines, and strategic aircraft with nuclear bombs and missiles. Specifically, these components are land-based ...
.
Description
The ''Arihant''-class submarines are nuclear powered
ballistic missile submarine
A ballistic missile submarine is a submarine capable of deploying submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) with nuclear warheads. The United States Navy's hull classification symbols for ballistic missile submarines are SSB and SSBN – t ...
s built under the ''
Advanced Technology Vessel
The ''Arihant''-class ( in Sanskrit) is a class of Indian nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines being built for the Indian Navy. They were developed under the ''Advanced Technology Vessel'' (ATV) project to design and build nuclear-po ...
'' (ATV) project.
They will be the first nuclear submarines designed and built by India.
The submarines are
long
Long may refer to:
Measurement
* Long, characteristic of something of great duration
* Long, characteristic of something of great length
* Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate
* Longa (music), note value in early music mensur ...
with a
beam
Beam may refer to:
Streams of particles or energy
*Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy
**Laser beam
*Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles
**Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...
of , a
draught of , displacement of .
The complement is about 95, including officers and sailors.
The boats are powered by a single seven blade propeller powered by an 83 MW
pressurised water reactor
A pressurized water reactor (PWR) is a type of light-water nuclear reactor. PWRs constitute the large majority of the world's nuclear power plants (with notable exceptions being the UK, Japan and Canada). In a PWR, the primary coolant (water) is ...
and can achieve a maximum speed of when surfaced and when submerged.
![B05 SLBM](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/B05_SLBM.jpg)
The submarines have four launch tubes in their hump and can carry up to twelve
K-15 Sagarika missiles with one warhead each (with a range of ) or four
K-4 missiles (with a range of ).
The third and fourth submarines will have a larger configuration, carrying twenty-four K-15 Sagarika or eight K-4 missiles.
The Indian Navy will train on , an Akula-class submarine leased from Russia in 2012.
The submarine's K-15 missiles can reach most of Pakistan and it's K-4 can target all of Pakistan.
[ The K-4 may also be capable of targeting ]Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
, but would need to be in the northern most waters of Bay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line between ...
.[ Deployment of the Arihant to the Pacific Ocean is unlikely given the submarine's noise issues.]
Development
The submarines are powered by a pressurised water reactor
A pressurized water reactor (PWR) is a type of light-water nuclear reactor. PWRs constitute the large majority of the world's nuclear power plants (with notable exceptions being the UK, Japan and Canada). In a PWR, the primary coolant (water) is ...
with highly enriched uranium
Enriched uranium is a type of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 (written 235U) has been increased through the process of isotope separation. Naturally occurring uranium is composed of three major isotopes: uranium-238 (238U ...
fuel. The miniaturised version of the reactor was designed and built by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre
The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) is India's premier nuclear research facility, headquartered in Trombay, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was founded by Homi Jehangir Bhabha as the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET) in January 195 ...
(BARC) at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research
Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) is one of India's premier nuclear research centres. It is the second largest establishment of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), next to Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), located at Kal ...
(IGCAR) in Kalpakkam
Kalpakkam is a township in Tamil Nadu, India, situated on the Coromandel Coast 70 kilometres south of Chennai. A conglomerate of two villages (Puduppattinam and Sadurangappatinam) and a DAE township, it is about from Thiruvanmiyur and fro ...
. It included a section of the submarine's pressure hull containing the shielding tank with water and the reactor, a control room, as well as an auxiliary control room for monitoring safety parameters. The prototype reactor became critical on 11 November 2003 and was declared operational on 22 September 2006.[ Successful operation of the prototype for three years enabled the production version of the reactor for ''Arihant''.] The reactor subsystems were tested at the Machinery Test Center in Visakhapatnam
, image_alt =
, image_caption = From top, left to right: Visakhapatnam aerial view, Vizag seaport, Simhachalam Temple, Aerial view of Rushikonda Beach, Beach road, Novotel, Novotel Visakhapatnam, INS Kursura (S20), INS ...
. Facilities for loading and replacing the fuel cores of the naval reactors in berthed submarines were also established.[ The prototype 83 MW light water reactor that was installed at ]Kalpakkam
Kalpakkam is a township in Tamil Nadu, India, situated on the Coromandel Coast 70 kilometres south of Chennai. A conglomerate of two villages (Puduppattinam and Sadurangappatinam) and a DAE township, it is about from Thiruvanmiyur and fro ...
by BARC is codenamed S1 and is used to train nuclear submariners.
In 2007, then finance minister P. Chidambaram
Palaniappan Chidambaram (born 16 September 1945), better known as P. Chidambaram, is an Indian politician and lawyer who currently serves as Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha. He served as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee ...
, who was a member of the political committee which monitors the ATV programme, questioned the huge amount of money being spent on submarines with just 4 missile launch tubes. Hence the ATV project team tweaked the Arihant design by adding a 10-metre-long section for four more K-4 SLBMs to be integrated into the boat codenamed S4. After it became evident that the larger S5 class of SSBNs will take more time to develop, an additional unit, codenamed S4*, was sanctioned in 2012 to ensure that the production line doesn't go idle.
The detailed engineering of the design was implemented at Larsen & Toubro
Larsen & Toubro Ltd, commonly known as L&T, is an Indian multinational conglomerate company, with business interests in engineering, construction, manufacturing, technology, information technology and financial services, headquartered in Mumba ...
's submarine design centre at their Hazira
Hazira is a suburb and a transshipment port in the Surat City in the Gujarat state of India. It is the west most end of Surat.
Hazira is one of the major ports of India and the most important element of Surat Metropolitan Region. The town is ...
shipbuilding facility. Tata Power SED
Tata Power SED (Tata Power Strategic Engineering Division) is an Indian defence manufacturing company and a part of the Tata Group. It was a unit of Tata Power until 2020, when Tata Advanced Systems acquired it from Tata Power. It was formerly ...
built the control systems for the submarine. The steam turbines and associated systems integrated with the reactor were supplied by Walchandnagar Industries
Walchandnagar Industries Limited (WIL) ( NSEWALCHANNAG BSE507410 is a heavy engineering products and EP&C services company, based in Mumbai, India.
History
Walchandnagar Industries was founded by Walchand Hirachand Doshi in 1908.
WIL was sub ...
. The lead vessel underwent a long and extensive process of testing after its launch in July 2009. The propulsion and power systems were tested with high-pressure steam trials followed by harbor-acceptance trials that included submersion tests by flooding its ballast tanks and controlled dives to limited depths. INS ''Arihant''s reactor went critical
Critical or Critically may refer to:
*Critical, or critical but stable, medical states
**Critical, or intensive care medicine
*Critical juncture, a discontinuous change studied in the social sciences.
*Critical Software, a company specializing in ...
for the first time on 10 August 2013. On 13 December 2014, the submarine set off for its extensive sea trials.
Ships in class
Four boats of this class are planned. The first boat of the class, , was commissioned in August 2016. The first four vessels are expected to be commissioned by 2025. In December 2014, the work on a second nuclear reactor began and the second boat, whose sea trial
A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft (including boats, ships, and submarines). It is also referred to as a " shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, and ...
s which started in 2017, is now completed and is scheduled to be commissioned in August, 2022 along with INS Vikrant Two ships operated by the Indian Navy
The Indian Navy is the maritime branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy. ...
. The final two ships INS Aridhaman and S4* in the class are expected to be larger, displacing over 1,000 tonnes more than the ''Arihant'' and have 8 missile launch tubes to carry up to 8 K4 or K5 and a more powerful pressurized water reactor than INS ''Arihant''. INS Aridhaman was launched in November 2021 and expected to be commission in 2024
, a larger follow on class to the ''Arihant'' class, designated by the codename S5, was planned, with three boats of the class projected. Missile capacity is expected to be 12 to 16 LRBMs.
Timeline
See also
* Future of the Indian Navy
The Indian Navy has been focusing on developing indigenous platforms, systems, sensors and weapons as part of the nation's modernisation and expansion of its maritime forces. As of November 2022, the Indian Navy has 45 vessels of various types ...
* List of submarines of the Indian Navy
This is a list of known submarines of the Indian Navy, grouped by class, and pennant numbers within the class.
In service
Under construction
Planned
Decommissioned
See also
; Indian navy related lists
* Aircraft of the India ...
* List of submarine classes in service
The list of submarine classes in service includes all submarine classes currently in service with navies or other armed forces worldwide. For surface combatants, see the list of naval ship classes in service.
Ballistic missile submarines
C ...
* Submarine-launched ballistic missile
A submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) is a ballistic missile capable of being launched from submarines. Modern variants usually deliver multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs), each of which carries a nuclear warhead ...
References
External links
The Indian Strategic Nuclear Submarine Project by Mark Gorwitz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arihant-class submarine
Ballistic missile submarines
Arihant-class submarines
Submarines of India
Nuclear-powered submarines
Submarine classes