India's Ballistic Missile Submarine - 40 years of perseverance

 INS Arihant was developed under Advanced Technology Vessel Programme (ATVP). It was began by Mrs. Indira Gandhi on 1974, and became a serious effort in 1985. It spawned a new era in the field of cooperation between DRDO, BARC, Navy, PSUs and private industry in which these organizations synergized their efforts to achieve a significant technological and strategic milestone. The Arihant class( nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines)- INS Arihant (S2), INS Arighat (S3) are built for the Indian Navy by Navy Shipbuilding Centre, Visakhapatnam. The miniaturized naval version of the reactor of 80MWe was designed and built by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) in Kalpakkam. The prototype reactor became critical on 11 November 2003 and was declared operational on 22 September 2006. Several companies supplied components of the reactor. High grade steel supplied by Heavy Engineering Corporation, Ranchi was used to build the reactor vessel. The steam generator was provided by BHEL; and Audco India, Chennai built the pressure valves. It is fitted with indigenous USHUS and Panchendriya Sonar by DRDO. Separately, infrastructure for testing the reactor subsystems was set up at the Machinery Test Center in Visakhapatnam. Facilities for loading and replacing the fuel cores of the naval reactors in berthed submarines were also established at the Ship Building Center. In 1998, L&T began fabricating the hull of ATV but the struggle with the reactor continued. After BARC designs failed, India bought reactor designs from Russia. By 2004 the reactor had been built, tested on land at the IGCAR and had gone critical. Its modest size, around 6,000 tons (the Ohio class SSBN in the movie Crimson Tide weighs over 14,000 tons), led experts to call it a "baby boomer". Once the design was finalized, detailed engineering was implemented at Larsen and Toubro's submarine design centre at their Hazira shipbuilding facility using 3D modelling and product data management software. Tata Power SED built the control systems for the submarine. The steam turbines and associated systems integrated with the PWR were supplied by Walchandnagar Industries. The vessels are classified as "Strategic Strike Nuclear Submarines" by India.

The 110m long SSBN(Ship Submersible Ballistic Nuclear) are fitted with 12 × K15 Sagarika SLBM (750 km or 470 mi range) or 4 × K-4 SLBM (3,500 km or 2,200 mi range). After nuclear warheads (SLBM or Submarine launched ballistic Missile) are mated to these missiles, India will finally be able to complete its nuclear triad, giving the country’s war planners multiple options if it comes to a nuclear confrontation. The 6000 tonne vessel has submerged speed of 30knots. The first submarine of the class INS Arihant was launched on 26 July 2009 and commissioned on August 2016. Thus India became only country outside UNSC Permanent-5 to operate SSBN. India’s first indigenously built nuclear submarine, cost $2.9 billion.

India is also planning to build 13500 tons S5 class submarines almost twice the size of existing Arihant class.