INS Arihant, Nuclear Triad and INS Arighat
What is the News?
- INS Arihant, India’s first nuclear ballistic missile submarine, has completed its first deterrence patrol, ope-rationalising India’s nuclear triad.
- This means the submarine is fully operational and, when deployed, for extended patrols, can target regional adversaries such as China with nuclear-tipped submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
- Arihant is now prowling the deep seas carrying ballistic missiles equipped with nuclear warheads.
INS Arihant
- It is India’s first indigenous nuclear submarine which means “Slayer of Enemies” in Sanskrit.
- INS Arihant, the 6,000 tonne vessel is a part of Indian Navy’s secretive Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project operated under the supervision of the Prime Minister’s Office.
- It is armed with four K-4 submarine launched ballistic missile with a range of 3,500 km.
- It can also be armed with 12 K-15 missiles with a range of 750 km.
- It was launched into the water at the ship-building centre in Visakhapatnam and the sea trials were started in December 2014 and the submarine was declared fit for operations in February 2016.
- With INS Arihant, India has now become part of an elite club of countries – Russia, the US, China, France and the UK that possess nuclear ballistic missile submarines.
What is Nuclear Triad?
- Nuclear Triad – the capability of firing nuclear weapons from land, air and sea.
- 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 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), strategic bombers, and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs).
- The purpose of having this three-branched nuclear capability is to significantly reduce the possibility that an enemy could destroy all of a nation’s nuclear forces in a first-strike attack.
INS Arighat
- It is the second nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine being built by India.
- It is also built under the same Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project as INS Arihant, to build nuclear submarines at the Ship Building Centre in Visakhapatnam.
- Arighat will have twice as many missile hatches as its predecessor INS Arihant, so it will be able to carry more missiles.
- It will also have a more powerful reactor than Arihant.
Prepared By: Sai Eswar