INTRODUCTION:
India’s Nuclear-Powered Ballistic Missile Submarine INS Ariddh aman has cleared all deep sea and weapons firing trials and is waiting for clearance from the Indian Navy to be officially inducted into the force by end of this year, or early 2018. It will soon join India’s underwater fleet and assume operational duties in service to the nation.
This is the second vessel of Arihant class, and is 2 times more lethal than the first vessel of this class INS Arihant.
In this video, Defense Updates provides viewers with details of the INS Ariddh aman. So, lets get started.
BACKGROUND:
India realized the significance of deterrence during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war. US in support of its ally Pakistan, dispatched ‘Task force 74’ led by USS Enterprise into the Bay of Bengal to intervene in India’s fight for Bangladesh.
Realizing the immense firepower the carrier group, India requested the intervention of Russia, which dispatched its nuclear powered submarines to confront the US task force. It was only for the interference of the Soviet’s the day was saved for India.
Learning from this, India in late 1980s, setup the Advanced Technology Vessels (ATV) project, with the sole purpose of constructing nuclear powered under water vessels, which could carry nuclear tipped ballistic missiles.
The Arihant class meaning “Killer of Enemies” is developed under this A T V project.
Exact number of planned submarines remains classified, but about 6 submarines are expected to be built.
Let us now understand why INS Ariddh aman is twice lethal, when compared to its predecessor INS Arihant.
MORE MISSILES:
Even though the same class as INS Arihant, she feature 8 launch tubes instead of the 4, giving her double the firepower of Arihant.
So, Ariddh aman can carry up to 24 K 15 Sagarika missiles, or 8 K 4 missiles.
Apart form that; the submarine is also integrated with 6 533 mm torpedo tubes.
Let us now understand K series missile in details.
K SERIES MISSILES:
K 15 and K 4 are nuclear-capable submarine-launched ballistic missile under developed by DRDO of India.
Difficulties with compacting the Agni-III to fit the 10 m diameter hull of INS Arihant, led to the development of K4.
K-4 features range comparable to Agni-III while being significantly smaller in size (12m vs 17m). It is named after former President of India Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, and has a range of 3500 km.
K-15 Sagarika complements the larger sibling, and has a range of 750 km.
K series missiles are faster, lighter and stealthier.
To make them survivable against Anti Missile Defense shields, they can be configured to follow 3D zig-zag path.
The next missile in this series is the K 5, which will have a strike range of nearly 5000 km.
CONCLUSION:
Nuclear powered submarines can stay underwater indefinitely, and are almost undetectable.
Equipped with nuclear tipped missiles, INS Arihant guarantee India a second-strike nuclear capability against arch rivals China and Pakistan. It completes India’s Nuclear Triad, a capability that allows a country to launch a nuclear missile from Land, Air and Sea. India is only among few countries having this capability, which includes United States, Russia, China, & France.
INS Ariddh aman will further enhance India’s capability since now two of these vessels will be ready for strike. Having twice the weapon carrying capacity of Arihant, INS Ariddh aman will provide India with a very robust retaliatory power.
