India’s first nuclear submarine, ‘INS Arihant’, has gone to the high-seas for an extended trial, indicating that the boomer is on course to be inducted by the Navy by 2011.
And I love the quote Ghost ends with:
May your weapons be strong to drive away the attackers,
may your arms be powerful enough to check the foes,
let your army be glorious, not the evil-doer.
- Rig Veda 1-39:2
3 comments:
Interesting, but what's the point of a SLBM with a 400-odd mile range?
Even right on the coast, most of Pakistan's out of range.
And a dubious deterrent against China, since China has antisubmarine forces, and nuclear boats aren't nearly as quiet as a diesel-electric on batteries.
(The reason, after all, that the US and Soviet boomers were a good third arm of deterrence was that they could hit something 4000 (Trident I) to 7000 (Trident II) miles away... and that means, for the latter, hitting Moscow from Honolulu.)
India longs for a deepwater Navy. I think they are likely to bank on this being a step forward with Pakistan and a token threat to China.
Sigivald,
The short range weapons are cruise missiles, the sub is supposed to also be equipped with their Agni ballistic missile system. Either the Agni-III which is currently active with a range of 3,000 - 5,500km's, or the under development Agni-V with a 5000 - 6000 Km range.
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