India on Sunday entered a select club with the formal launch of the country’s first indigenous nuclear-powered submarine.
India on Sunday entered a select club with the formal launch of the country’s first indigenous nuclear-powered submarine even as prime minister Manmohan Singh assured the world that the country had “no aggressive designs”.
While the submarine, the most secure platform for nuclear weapons, will be formally commissioned into the navy only after harbour and sea trials that may take more than a year, India has become the sixth nation to have such a capability after the US, Russia, UK, France and China.
Defence experts say the first test is now to ensure that the on-board reactor attains criticality (when the nuclear chain reaction becomes self-sustaining, kick-starting the reactor). Russian help, both in terms of design and technology, was critical to the development of the submarine, sources said. It completes India’s triad — capability to launch nuclear weapons from land, air and sea. As India has sworn to the no-first-use doctrine, the submarine is the most important component of the nation’s second-strike capability.
It can remain under water for as long as on-board resources permit, unlike diesel submarines that regularly surface to recharge their batteries. This helps it to remain undetected and safely carry nuclear missiles and launch them, if need be.
On Sunday, after breaking a coconut to formally launch the submarine at the ship building centre in Visakhapatnam, the prime minister’s wife Gurcharan Kaur said: “I name it INS Arihant [destroyer of enemies]. All the best to the submarine.”
Defence minister AK Antony was also present at the ceremony.
Speaking after the launch, the prime minister said India has “no aggressive designs, nor do we seek to threaten anyone”. The nation seeks an “external environment in our region and beyond, that is conducive to our peaceful development and the protection of our value systems”, he said.
Singh, however, said it was “incumbent upon us to take all measures necessary to safeguard our country and to keep pace with technological advancements worldwide. It has rightly been said that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty”.
India already has an array of land-based nuclear capable missiles, and many of its air force fighters are capable of dropping nuclear bombs. But they are easy targets for an enemy attack.
A few months after China successfully developed its nuclear submarine in 1971, then prime minister Indira Gandhi ordered the indigenous development of a nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN).
Code named Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV), the project has been among the most secretive of country’s indigenous projects along with the nuclear weapons programme.
It has seen huge delays, severe cost escalations and immense technological challenges.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}