India launches its first nuclear-powered submarine

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 26 Jul 2009 | Harriet Alexander

[Cheap_Hessian]

The 6,000 tonne Arihant - which means ‘Destroyer of Enemies’ in Sanskrit - was officially named on Sunday in the southern port city of Visakhapatnam.

Attending the ceremony the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, said the launch was “historic milestone in the country’s defence preparedness”.

India joins a select club of nations with the capacity to develop nuclear submarines. Until now, only the United States, Russia, France, Britain and China had the technology for such submarines.

The move is likely to rattle neighbouring Pakistan, which has fought three wars with India - two of them over control of the Kashmir region - since they won independence from Britain in 1947.

Experts say India is modernising its armed forces and is focusing on improving its naval fleet with new ships and submarines to counter the strategic interest of China in the region.

China is India’s biggest trade partner in Asia. But India, already wary of China’s growing military might, fears its giant rival wants to strategically encircle India as Beijing continues to supply weapons to India’s neighbours, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Last year’s Mumbai attacks, in which 10 gunmen arrived by the sea to kill 166 people, also exposed glaring loopholes in its sea security.

“The sea is increasingly becoming relevant in the context of India’s security interests and we must re-adjust our military preparedness to this changing environment,” Prime Minister Singh said.

“We do not have any aggressive designs nor do we seek to threaten anyone. We seek an external environment ... conducive to our peaceful development and the protection of our value systems.”

The launch is part of a $2.9 billion (£1.8 billion) plan to build five submarines.

[mkjessup]

Well now, this is interesting.

I wonder how the ChiComs would feel about someone ‘accidentally’ leaking the technical details on how to retrofit the ‘Arihant’ with Tomahawk nuclear tipped cruise missiles?

[sinanju]

I’m with you there.

I’d say the Indians were thinking more of the Chinese when they built this.

[SlowBoat407]

Question is, who do THEY call for tech support?

[Mac1]

Very good. They’ve got a space programme as well! :-D

All while receiving £825m aid over 3 years from the British govt...:-(

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7198546.stm

[The Great RJ]

It is secretly powered by curry.

[org.whodat]

Looks like they left a lot of room for the hand cranks.

[pabianice]

Looks like a Leftist’s Hybrid Version of USS Ohio...

[CodeToad]

Compared to ours, theirs looks like a short bus.

[csvset]

Question is, who do THEY call for tech support?

Who you gonna call?

DEEP SUBMERGENCE UNIT

[Jeff Head]

Yep...but they are countering the Chinese PLAN and continuing to make sure they let Pakistan know how fruitless and suicidal an attack would be.

[Tallguy]

It would be interesting to know if the sub is already equipped with launch-tubes of the right size to handle existing cruise missile designs, like Tomahawk. I don’t think that it would be easy to ‘retrofit’ if they were not already the proper size.

That said, I’m sure that India has the technical capacity to design & build a cruise missile of their own that would fit into those tubes.

[MyTwoCopperCoins]

How can that be the INS Arihant? The text is in Italian, the flag is Italian, the place is not India and it is too small to qualify as a nuke sub.

The picture is most likely of the Italian diesel-electric sub, the ITS Guglielmo Marconi.

[MyTwoCopperCoins]

Although pictures of the sub have not been released yet, it would most likely look like this:

PS: The flag on this sub is of the Indian Navy.

[LiberConservative]

Does it have leather seats? Oops. Sorry.

[Red Dog #1]

If the Paki’s really want to compete with India, they'd better stop worry about matching them weapon system for weapon system and start working on developing strong national institutions and an actual economy. Until then, the best hope for is to be (really big) troublemakers and spoilers

[Jeff Head]

The answer is that that pic is not of the Ariahnt. My bad. I used a pic at a news site without vetting it well enough and appreciate you pointing it out.

I cannot find any actual pictures of the vessel which is surprising because you would think on launch day the media would be flooded with them.

I have asked the mods to replace that pic in my post, with this one:

Which is a representation of how the vessel should look. Thanks for calling it.

[MyTwoCopperCoins]

You’re welcome!

There has been some effort by the Indian authorities to not release the pictures of the sub, or of the facility that made it. It’s not usual, especially with India.

[Cheap_Hessian]

From what I am hearing, this ceremony is mostly a statement, and currently, the submarine likely lacks operational capabilities. I think there is some question if they currently have a trained crew ready to go. So, that might be a reason why there is a lack of details or pictures.