NEW DELHI: India on Friday commissioned its third indigenous nuclear-powered and ballistic missile-carrying submarine, INS Aridhaman.
In Naval parlance, such submarines are called ‘ship submersible ballistic nuclear’ (SSNB). India has already inducted two such submarines — INS Arihant and INS Arighaat — in 2016 and 2024, respectively. The series of these vessels is called the ‘Arihant class’.
INS Aridhaman and its sister submarines — INS Arihant and INS Arighaat — are nuclear-powered and can remain submerged under water for weeks at a stretch. India’s nuclear doctrine rules out a ‘first strike’; however, to carry out a retaliatory strike, an SSBN submerged under water is considered the best option.
Analysts say India now has the requisite number of submarines to maintain a “continuous at-sea deterrent” posture with at least one SSBN on armed patrol at all times. This will position India as the only country apart from China, France, Russia, the UK and the US — the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — to have this ability.
INS Aridhaman is expected to carry 750-km range K-15 and also a K-4 intermediate range (some 3,500 km) ballistic missiles, which can also carry a nuclear warhead.
The three submarines are part of India’s secretive advanced technology vessel (ATV) project and form a critical component of the nuclear triad – the ability to fire a nuclear weapon from air, land and sea.
INS Aridhaman — being longer in length than its sister vessels — has eight launch tubes instead of four, thus doubling the vertical launch system (VLS) capacity to fire missiles.
Earlier in the morning, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who was in Vishakhapatnam for the commissioning of warship Taragiri, posted a one liner in Hindi language on X which when translated in English means: “It’s not a word, It’s a power — Aridhaman”.
Sources said the nuclear submarine was commissioned after a public ceremony to commission INS Taragiri.
The submarine’s hull has been fabricated by L&T and built at Visakhapatnam. The Arihant-class submarines are powered by an indigenous 83 MW pressurised light-water reactor developed by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre.
The sumbarine features improved sonar suites and indigenous communication systems, alongside more refined hydrodynamics to reduce its acoustic signature (noise level), making it harder to detect during deep-sea patrols.
Besides its indigenous SSBNs, India is looking to secure a nuclear-powered attack submarine from Russia. It does not carry nuclear missiles. Sources said it was expected to be arriving in India by 2027.