Why everyone is calling it indigenous if Indians got Russian help?
Description of the Arihant by Telegraph journalist.
Indias nuclear sub: There she lies like a supine beast, hidden from satellite eyes
The hump, one officer says, will open a hatch to fire missiles vertically. There may be four tubes underneath, each capable of holding three nuclear-tipped SLBMs( 350 to 700km range) submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
But the length is within grasp. From the tip of its tail to its snub-nosed bow, the Arihant is 112 metres, longer by far than any of the submarines in the Indian Naval fleet. At its widest, it is 11 metres in diameter.The size of the SSBN the ship submersible ballistic nuclear missile that the Arihant is, registers first-up.
Russias ambassador to India and Russian technologists associated with Indias nuclear submarine programme are present here. Their contribution is richly acknowledged.
We never had a nuclear submarine, and we needed design consultancy from them, Vice Admiral Kannan says. The Arihant has about 40 per cent indigenous content. The next two submarines of the same class that are planned are likely to have more.
This is a double-hull. What you see is the outer hull through which the water will go in and help take the sub down, says Rao. Thats common to all submarines. The inner, pressurised hull, is another cocoon. He is talking of a cocoon within a cocoon.
At the snub-nose in the bow, on the waterline right now because the submarine is still on the surface, is a sheet of white metal that contrasts with the blackness of the rest of the hull. They are the sonar sheets of the Arihant.
Below it, on either side and under the water, are three or four tubes angled upwards. They are the torpedo barrels. The missiles with nuclear warheads wont come out of here. The Arihant may not even have to use this in a conflict. It is a strategic weapons platform, expected to be escorted by the hunter-killer-attack submarines.
The nuclear-tipped missiles that will go into its silos are being tried and tested on land. First, it is likely to be armed with the K-15, that have a range of 750km, and subsequently, a more developed missile, at best called the K-X now, that is being designed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation and Bharat Dynamics to have a range of at least 1,500km. Even that is not strategic.
The Indian Navy is operating under the belief that it has to compete with the Chinese and must be capable of launching a missile from a submarine with a nuclear warhead that is capable of hitting the target from at least 3,500km.
Inside the ship-building yard, the Arihant glides to a stop. The water hardly ripples. Captain Dutt on the conning tower is speaking into a walkie-talkie. The vessel will have a crew of more than 90 but less than 100.
The idea behind a nuke sub is to stay quiet and undetected undersea for weeks, possibly months. The Advance Technology Vessel project was officially begun in 1984 25 years ago. The crew will have less, far less, a time to prepare.
Ten years after Kargil, war keeps getting more onerous.
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