India to Commission Second Nuclear-Powered Ballistic Missile Submarine INS Arighat on Aug 29

India is poised to strengthen its naval prowess significantly with the commissioning of INS Arighat, its second nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN), scheduled for August 29, 2024. This event marks a major milestone, coming almost seven years after the submarine's launch in Visakhapatnam in November 2017.

INS Arighat, a formidable asset for the Indian Navy, boasts impressive specifications: a length of 111.6 meters, a beam of 11 meters, a draught of 9.5 meters, and a displacement of 6,000 tonnes. It plays a crucial role in India's nuclear triad, enabling the nation to launch nuclear missiles from land, air, and sea.

Powered by an 82.5 MW pressurized light water reactor developed with Russian assistance, INS Arighat can achieve a top speed of 24 knots submerged and 10 knots on the surface. Its primary armament consists of 12 K-15 Sagarika submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), each with a range exceeding 700 kilometers. These missiles are housed in four large vertical launch system (VLS) tubes and are a testament to India's indigenous missile development capabilities.

Constructed at the Indian Navy's Ship Building Centre (SBC) in Visakhapatnam, INS Arighat incorporates Russian steel equivalent to US HY-80 grade and features a double hull for enhanced survivability. The submarine is divided into seven compartments, housing propulsion and combat management systems, a platform management center, and a torpedo room. Additional safety measures include two standby auxiliary engines and a retractable thruster for emergency power and mobility.

INS Arighat follows in the footsteps of INS Arihant, India's first SSBN, which was commissioned in 2016. A third, yet-to-be-named SSBN was launched in 2021, further solidifying India's commitment to developing a credible sea-based nuclear deterrent.

The commissioning of INS Arighat is expected to be attended by top defence, national security, and military officials.

The Indian Navy has already developed and tested long-range nuclear missiles from these submarines and is preparing to induct the third submarine in coming years, with two more set to be ready by 2035-36.

The Arihant class submarines, named after the Sanskrit word meaning 'Destroyer of the Enemy,' signify the strategic importance of nuclear-powered submarines.

India is actively working on having five Arihant class boats along with six nuclear attack submarines to be built in three blocks.

In the conventional arena, the Indian Navy has already acquired six new Kalvari class submarines and will get 15 more new in Project 75I, Project-76, and Project-75 AS.

 

[J S Roy Choudhury]

No doubt, it is a good news to know our underwater arm is being bolstered.

But as a layman, one wants to know why it takes about 7 years for a vessel to be commissioned after its launch? Is it the standard time take elsewhere by other navies too? Can we not speed up the entire process to get them operational at the earliest?

We are investing the tax-payers money in such equipment. We would want fast implementation, else the useful life of the vessels gets shortened due to such delays.

The MoD and its bureaucracy contributes to severe delays, then the shipyards delay the process further, and after the launch it takes years to make them operational. Such delays are shameful and criminal. The Navy must ensure that their plans are implemented in time, since delay increases cost, inefficiency and obsolescence.

 

[Anant]

High time and long overdue. Let's hope S4 enters the fleet as planned by 2026-27, and S4* is ready by 2030 as planned. That will allow for production of the S5-class to begin by 2027-28, thereby allowing for those boats to start entering service by 2038-40.

 

[sanket]

Good News with delay on Chakra Sub on Lease Induction will add more teeth to Fire power waiting for Next one

 

[Taus Melek]

Baby steps, at a time when China and pakistan and taking giant leaps!

 

[NSR]

For a safe operation of Nuclear Triad from SSBNs, India must arm them with minimum range K4 missiles with a range or 3,500 kms to target terroristan phaakeestan and 7,500+ kms ballistic missile to target criminal China.
The 750 kms and 1500 kms SLBMs would put Indian SSBNs in too much risk.

So Indian SLBMs and Silos on INS Arihant, Arighat, and coming up Aridhamman surely needs some garlic and ginger and spices to refit their silos.

Only then enemies will fear Indian nuclear triad.

 

[tipoo2]

Baby steps, at a time when China and pakistan and taking giant leaps!

Oh come on, be happy about something here lol. What Pakistani SSBN? Our navy would still single handedly pulverize them. Testing these takes time and will accelerate with future models.

 

[Bobby Singh]

Good News with delay on Chakra Sub on Lease Induction will add more teeth to Fire power waiting for Next one

Chakra sub is not in picture any more

 

[Dredd]

Good News with delay on Chakra Sub on Lease Induction will add more teeth to Fire power waiting for Next one

chakra is SSN , this is SSBN, its only task is to sit at the ocean bed and wait.

 

[Sarthak Singh]

Oh come on, be happy about something here lol. What Pakistani SSBN? Our navy would still single handedly pulverize them. Testing these takes time and will accelerate with future models.

our ins vikrant is alone capable of defeating enitre pakistani navy , our real threat is china .

 

[Bhishma]

Baby steps, at a time when China and pakistan and taking giant leaps!

China has made giant leap by permanently stationing their nuke sub 093-417 in the ocean floor. Pakistan has made giant leap by permanently stationing PNS Ghazi in Bay of Bengal floor since December 4, 1971

 

[desigandu]

High time and long overdue. Let's hope S4 enters the fleet as planned by 2026-27, and S4* is ready by 2030 as planned. That will allow for production of the S5-class to begin by 2027-28, thereby allowing for those boats to start entering service by 2038-40.

Great, at least we are moving forward with our boomers…what worries me is our offensive SSNs and the time it will take to get at least 2 in the waters - not before 2035…Hopefully they will have the 190mw reactors with pump jets, about 6000 tons displacement, 12/24 VLS cells (with some quad packed Brahmos2s) with both subsonic and hypersonic land attack/anti ship cruise missiles with at least a 1500 km range and the ability to launch special forces…i think we should influence, coax, or buy such tech and collaborate with the french while declaring SSNs and Kaveri2 as national priority strategic projects to get them going, akin to our bharat space station program.., can we get the 1st SSN in the water by 2030 , and subsequent ones every 2 years with at least 6 in that phase.. what will that take???

 

[Tanishq Bafila]

For a safe operation of Nuclear Triad from SSBNs, India must arm them with minimum range K4 missiles with a range or 3,500 kms to target terroristan phaakeestan and 7,500+ kms ballistic missile to target criminal China.
The 750 kms and 1500 kms SLBMs would put Indian SSBNs in too much risk.

So Indian SLBMs and Silos on INS Arihant, Arighat, and coming up Aridhamman surely needs some garlic and ginger and spices to refit their silos.

Only then enemies will fear Indian nuclear triad.

TBH , you only need 5k + range Ballistic missiles for a intercontinental enemy... We have no enemy outside Asia..

Also to carry those 5k+ range missiles you submarine has atleast 8000 tonnes displacement & for 7k+ range then it even goes up

 

[Sandeep]

Chakra sub is not in picture any more

There’s been no official reports that the Chakra 3 will be delayed and it will be delivered on time based upon the legally binding contract. India can’t afford to scrap this deal because it will be the only nuclear attack submarine for at least a decade until we start constructing our own 6 P75A nuclear attack submarines.

 

[Sandeep]

This submarine is a critical necessity as until now we only had to rely on one submarine which would threaten our national security and nuclear triad every time they needed to dock, carry out maintenance, repairs or servicing.

Also we could only deploy this near Pakistan or China but not at the same time which weakened our counter strike capabilities. At least with Arighat we can deploy one submarine against each enemy but we still have a long way to go. Ideally we need to deploy at least two submarines against each enemy so that even if one submarine has to go for maintenance then the other submarine could still be deployed against them.

However we now need to construct even larger nuclear ballistic submarines. The S5 class submarines will be 12000t and twice the size of the 6000t Arihant class. We also need to construct at least 6 submarines which can hold more and longer range missiles with a range of at least 12000km which will significantly increase our offensive fire power.

Also we need to start building our own indigenous P75 Alpha nuclear attack submarines. We can use a lot of the same or similar technology from the Arihant submarine and equipment which will save time and money. One crucial upgrade that we will need is to use the current 190MW compact light water reactor that’s still under development and almost ready so we can travel at faster speeds to wherever it’s necessary.

 

[Ankit Singhal]

But where are the K5 missiles with MIRV technology. Without these it is just empty vessel that can do nothing...

 

[tipoo2]

But where are the K5 missiles with MIRV technology. Without these it is just empty vessel that can do nothing...

The K4 can strike the majority of China and all of Pakistan from the safety of the Bay of Bengal, before it even travels. It's not nothing. K5 will be even better yes.

 

[Anant]

Great, at least we are moving forward with our boomers…what worries me is our offensive SSNs and the time it will take to get at least 2 in the waters - not before 2035…Hopefully they will have the 190mw reactors with pump jets, about 6000 tons displacement, 12/24 VLS cells (with some quad packed Brahmos2s) with both subsonic and hypersonic land attack/anti ship cruise missiles with at least a 1500 km range and the ability to launch special forces…i think we should influence, coax, or buy such tech and collaborate with the french while declaring SSNs and Kaveri2 as national priority strategic projects to get them going, akin to our bharat space station program.., can we get the 1st SSN in the water by 2030 , and subsequent ones every 2 years with at least 6 in that phase.. what will that take???

Sir, 2035 is probably the timeline for the first SSN, assuming approval is received soon. As for the specifications, I broadly agree, but quad-packed Brahmos may be too much.

The Brahmos is already a fairly large missile, and the only way I see something like quad-packed BrahMos would be if we took the SLBM module from the Arihant-class and modified those cells to instead have multiple BrahMos missiles (essentially transforming the ships into SSGNs). This would be something akin to the first four Ohio-class SSGN conversions, where each of the 22 SLBM tubes were converted to hold 7 Tomahawk missiles each, giving the boats a massive 154 missile carrying capability.

My gut feeling is that one of two things will happen. Either the first batch (Boats 1 and 2) will completely forego VLS cells, or will have a small number of VLS cells (6 or so). From the second batch onwards, we may see an increased number of VLS cells (12 or so).

As for timelines, assuming we start in early 2025, the first boat would be launched by 2032 or so at the earliest, and the second by 2034 or so, which means commissioning in 2035 and 2037 respectively. That pushes the next boats to 2040 or afterwards. Unfortunately, our relative lack of submarine construction expertise as well as the technical complexities that SSN construction entails means I can't see it happening any faster.

 

[desigandu]

Sir, 2035 is probably the timeline for the first SSN, assuming approval is received soon. As for the specifications, I broadly agree, but quad-packed Brahmos may be too much.

The Brahmos is already a fairly large missile, and the only way I see something like quad-packed BrahMos would be if we took the SLBM module from the Arihant-class and modified those cells to instead have multiple BrahMos missiles (essentially transforming the ships into SSGNs). This would be something akin to the first four Ohio-class SSGN conversions, where each of the 22 SLBM tubes were converted to hold 7 Tomahawk missiles each, giving the boats a massive 154 missile carrying capability.

My gut feeling is that one of two things will happen. Either the first batch (Boats 1 and 2) will completely forego VLS cells, or will have a small number of VLS cells (6 or so). From the second batch onwards, we may see an increased number of VLS cells (12 or so).

As for timelines, assuming we start in early 2025, the first boat would be launched by 2032 or so at the earliest, and the second by 2034 or so, which means commissioning in 2035 and 2037 respectively. That pushes the next boats to 2040 or afterwards. Unfortunately, our relative lack of submarine construction expertise as well as the technical complexities that SSN construction entails means I can't see it happening any faster.

Thanks, your analysis seems pretty realistic given our current constraints. Nevertheless, i am hopeful that we can do things faster as our industrial capability & capacity gets better, while more funding is available to attract investments in manufacturing, testing etc., primarily from large and medium domestic players..,

Even the US has realized that to fight future wars a robust industrial base and logistics are the key to success - ala Ukraine and potentially a future South China sea conflict of some sort that is bound to happen - in fact needed to reign in China…

One way to drive things is extreme prioritisation with high level oversight and lots of funding - needed for both SSNs and fighter aircraft engines and their manufacturing…hopefully in 10 years we will be in better shape like our space station by 2035…

can/will the french help with lots of money, wine and cheese? why/why not? they were left at the altar by the aussies due to their reluctance, to share their crown jewels! fracophiles can chime in too, now that Russian collaboration seems a bridge too far!

 

[NSR]

TBH , you only need 5k + range Ballistic missiles for a intercontinental enemy... We have no enemy outside Asia..

Also to carry those 5k+ range missiles you submarine has atleast 8000 tonnes displacement & for 7k+ range then it even goes up

TBH, The tonnage estimates are for old and behemoth Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles.
3,500+ kms is good enough for terroristan.
7,500+ kms is good enough to reach all of criminal chiese big cities.