Nuclear Submarine - INS Arihant

While preparing for the Civil Services (UPSC) interview, I had given mock interviews at a few of the places. And in "every" mock interview, the interviewer would ask me about the job profile and nature of the job. I have worked in Nuclear Equipments and Systems Business. My job was to export the types of equipment related to the Nuclear Power Plant, to the USA. This was the reason why my half of the mock interviews were based on the NUCLEAR related stuff.

In my actual final interview, they didn't ask me about my job profile but questions started with my job title "Senior Engineer - Project Management Group". The only question related to Nuclear asked to me was "Do we need Nuclear Submarine?" And that's because of the contribution made by L&T in building our first ever indigenous Nuclear Submarine - INS Arihant!

When we say Nuclear The submarine, we mean the one which is powered by the nuclear fission reaction. We also have Diesel fired submarine which can carry nuclear missiles.

Arihant, which literally means "the annihilator of the enemy", is India's first indigenous nuclear ballistic submarine. It's fully functional now. Apart from India, thereof five countries who have nuclear submarines - USA, Russia, China, UK, and France.

Arihant is armed with K15 missiles. It's a good range considering it's our only first nuclear submarine, but it's far behind China's nuclear submarine having a range of 3000 km. Please note that I'm not one of those who are obsessed with comparing India with China because personally, I feel it's no point to compare with a country which has GDP 4.7 times of India and Foreign Exchange Reserve 8.7 times of India. But when it comes to security, we must know what our dear neighbor has in their backyard.

Arihant is a 6000 Ton submarine with 83 MW nuclear reactors installed on it. Again, it's smaller as compared to others. But it's a start. Hopefully, with the development of complete in house technology, we will build required conventional submarines here only. Today, we are dependent on import of sensors and other critical parts of submarine.

The significant contribution of Arihant is improving our Triad capability. Triad capability means striking (nuclear) missiles through air, land, and sea. This is particularly important for a peace-promoting country like ours' who has "No First Use" the central principle of Nuclear Doctrine. Since nuclear submarine can remain underwater for a longer period of time than a conventional submarine, it protects our nuclear weapons in a better manner. And if India faces any nuclear attack, we got to be ready with hard second strike, to answer the attack.

Well, don't start visualizing the nuclear war already. These kinds of weapons are strategic ones and not tactical ones. Nuclear weapons are used for the power balance and thus to avoid wars. Considering the economic interest and inter-dependence of countries, there can only be trade wars, no nuclear wars. And if anyone (most probably non-state actor using Nuclear weapons of fallen state!) starts a nuclear war, only cockroaches will read this post in the future.

One should not look at Arihant as a submarine vessel only. It's a technology demonstration in front of the world. It is a showcase of an engineering marvel. It's giving proof of our capabilities than just telling stories of our great ancestors. It's a step towards claiming a rightful place in the global order.

Arihant reflects the pillars of our foreign policy: Suraksha (Security), Samruddhi (Prosperity through peace) and Sanman (Respect)!

|| Duty || Honor || Courage ||