INS Arihant:India's Very Own Nautilus

INS Arihant: India’s Very Own Nautilus

With the launch of India’s first nuclear submarine on Sunday 26th July, indigenously built at the Vishakapatnam Ship Yard by the Navy and the DRDO, albeit with Russian help, we have decisively crossed a very important strategic threshold.

The Indian Navy has proudly named it INS Arihant, meaning “enemy” (Ari) and “slayer” (Hant). We can now potentially launch nuclear missiles from under the sea with little chance of detection.

By the induction of this submarine India becomes the 6th country to manufacture and possess such nuclear powered submarines and joins a handful of Western countries, namely the US, Russia, France, the UK, and China in this regard.

This happy day coincides with the 10th anniversary of the hard-fought Indian victory at Kargil, a war thrust upon India, and not for the first time either, due to Pakistani adventurism.

Besides, in the context of an intractable Kashmir problem, and the constant cross-border subversion and terrorism we are enduring, an ever aggressive Pakistan does not hesitate to repeatedly threaten a nuclear “first strike” if we were to launch a full-fledged conventional war against it, no matter what the provocation offered by it.

India, on its part, has been steadfast in its “no first strike” policy. And therefore, it becomes all the more important to have a nuclear second-strike capacity. And nuclear submarines make it possible to launch strikes from hard to detect and moving launch-pads hidden deep under the sea or from locations devastatingly close to the enemy’s coastline.

We will, given successful sea and weapons trials, soon have a nuclear delivery capacity equal and perhaps superior to that of China. Pakistan, as yet, has no nuclear submarines in its fleet though it will probably acquire some from good friend China before long.

But China itself only has ten, even with its nuclear submarine programme launched in 1971. This is modest when contrasted with America’s 74 deployed in the world’s oceans followed by the 50 odd that belong to Russia.

But, in matters concerning nuclear weaponisation, even the one Rs. 3,000 crore submarine in India’s possession, can, and probably will, act as sufficient deterrent against suffering a “first strike”.

We will, the experts estimate, need several more of these 6,000 ton Arihant Class submarines, comparable in speed and capabilities to the American nuclear “Ohio Class” submarines. Two more hulls have already been completed in Gujarat and will be sent to Vishakapatnam soon for the next stage of the operation towards our “10 nuclear submarines in ten years” programme.

Our strategic and defensive needs include the patrolling of our immediate neighbourhood: the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, The Palk Straits, and large portions of the Indian Ocean. And there is a increasing demand from America and its NATO Allies that India assume its regional defence responsibilities in a more tangible manner.

The Indian Navy and our political establishment seems to be on board with this thought, ever since the Vajpayee Government gave this nuclear submarine project a push, announcing that it will also indigenously build a variant of the Russian “Akula Class” ( Shark) nuclear attack submarine in the future.

Combined with India’s efforts to build its own aircraft carriers after being grievously over-charged in the yet to be refurbished and delivered “Admiral Gorshkov”; and given that we already have a respectable ballistic missile building programme; the declared policy of creating a nuclear “triad”, meaning a nuclear attack capability from land, sea and air, is now on its way to becoming autonomous of any other nation.

The INS Arihant, will now be put through two years of sea and weapons trials before being “operationalised”. But at a pinch, this submarine can launch 12 of our “Sagarika Class” ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads and a range of up to 700 km much sooner.

In addition, India has several diesel fuelled conventional submarines, 16 variations of the Russian “Kilo Class”, and another 4 which are variants of the German-made HDW-but these need to come up frequently for air, water, and to recharge their batteries, and are also very much slower.

The Arihant however can go on for months in the deep. It can make its own oxygen, and desalinate its own water. It only needs to surface for replenishment of its food supplies and for its crew to go on restorative visits ashore.

The great nineteenth century science fiction author Jules Verne coincidentally had an Indian protagonist, a mysterious visionary called Captain Nemo of the Nautilus, in his celebrated classic “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea”. In its most recent film version,“The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,” Captain Nemo was played by our very own Nasiruddin Shah.

In Jules Verne’s captivating story written in 1869-70, Captain Nemo was a decided futurist with utopian ideas in counterpoint to the ills that were besetting the world he knew, nearly 150 years ago. And this may well turn out to be the larger purpose of nuclear submarines, beyond its military possibilities.

The Nautilus too was probably nuclear powered, capable of great speeds and staying in the deep for weeks on end. Nemo farmed the sea for its food and harvested other treasures of a more worldly nature from shipwrecks. And he reprovisioned and made repairs at a secluded and remote island base, completely hidden in those pre-satellite days.

But the romance of Jules Verne’s amazingly prescient story apart, it is a decidedly powerful trend today, to calibrate the relative importance of peoples and nations in terms of military capability and economic power.

The successful launch of the INS Arihant , coming, as it does, after various other recent achievements including the induction of the long-awaited Arjun Main Battle Tank is India’s recognition of this ground reality.

And in due course, this emerging military building programme will underpin India’s status as a leading nation emerging out of an ambivalent policy fog. This in turn is bound to serve this country well, making some aspirations such as permanent membership of the UN Security Council rather easier. It will also rationalise the costs associated with our mounting defence needs and hold our security needs in good stead. It will also keep us safe from would be regional domination from China, both in the seas and in the North East.

The nation owes its scientists, policy makers and military men a debt of gratitude.

(1,052 words)

26th July 2009
Gautam Mukherjee

Published as Leader Edit in The Pioneer entitled "India's Very Own Nautilus"
on Wednesday,July 29th, 2009. Also online at www.dailypioneer.com and archived there under Columnists.