Indian Navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma said at the force's annual press conference Friday ahead of Navy Day on Dec 4 that the process of readying the nuclear-powered submarine was "on track".
"By and large we are on track. A firm date can be given when we go for sea trials that will hopefully happen in a few months from now," Verma said when he was asked about his last Navy Day promise that INS Arihant will go out on high seas patrols by 2012-end.
India had launched the 6,000-tonne submarine into the waters at Visakhapatnam Naval Dockyard on July 26 in 2009. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur were present on the occassion.
INS Arihant has been built under the navy's advanced technology vessel (ATV) programme at a cost of $2.9 billion. The vessel is critical for India possessing the capability to launch nuclear weapons from an underwater platform.
With India's declared "no first use" policy on nuclear weapons, the country's weapons system must survive a first strike for retaliation. To that effect, INS Arihant's primary weapon is stealth as it will be able to lurk in ocean depths of half a kilometre or more and fire missiles from under the sea.
The submarine is powered by an 85 MW nuclear reactor and can acquire surface speeds of 22 to 28 kmph or 12 to 15 knots, apart from a submerged speed of 44 kmph or 24 knots.
With a crew of 95, it will be armed with torpedoes and missiles including 12 ballistic missiles. Four more nuclear-powered submarines of this class have already got government's nod, adding to navy's underwater combat potential in the years to come.
On the safety of the nuclear submarine, the navy chief said there was a requirement of a regulatory authority and Baba Atomic Research Centre will play a major role in this.
He said the issue was not about nuclear safety while the vessel is at port but while it is at sea and hence the modalities for that and basing of specialist on board the vessel are under consideration.
4 comments :
Sir what is your vision in comparison to China's aggresiveness in view of the post 1962 war with China up to 2020. Do you feel that we have enough potential and readiness to handle and engage and be able to fight and win both China and Pakistan ???? How many old fleet of submarines of Indian Navy are to retire and how many New to replace them by 2020 and is it sufficient ??? We know that you are working day and night to keep our country secure, but do you really feel it is enough ???? What about the Nuclear triad, will it able to match China by 2015 ??? Do we have our own ICBM ready ???? And does all the Three wings of our Defence is fully equipped with UAVs with and outside International Boundaries with sufficient satalite and radar capabilities (AWACS) ??? Do we have enough LTA and ATA with space missile readiness ???
1) No we cannot take on Pakistan and China together we do not have that much capability.
2) Most of our subs except the German ones are kilo class Russian subs and they have outlived their life span.
3) China has huge amount of subs mostly Diesel ones.
4) China at present cannot harm us substantially in the Indian Ocean due to the distance from its ports.
5) Having Nuclear triad is one thing but the will to use it comes from policy makers at Delhi, where we have a issue.
6) NO we do not have ICBM but if we keep progressing and do not shelve our missile program (like the last time) then very soon we will have that capability, at present we are in the IRBM state.
7) UAV's and AWACS are being slowly incorporated and in their usage Airforce(AWACS) and Navy(UAVS) are a bit ahead of the Army but we will soon have dedicated satellites.(Dont ask when again depends on Delhi). Within a year or two we will have our own AWACS.
8) No we are no where near space missiles, it is a pipe dream.(Not to say we cannot but we need a push now)
9) Lastly we will never be able to match China as long as Chinese economy remains so dominant and so much larger than ours, it is theoretically and practically impossible.
10) What we need is to improve our eastern front infrastructure and completely de-stabilize Pakistan to keep its military engaged in Civil war.
But to do all these we need people with vision in New Delhi and the next time you and me go out to vote we should remember vote for persons achievement and quality not for his caste and religion and reservation sops
Please note that in the photograph posted above is depicted the launch of the Italian make submarine Salvatore Todaro (S 526), built at the Italian Fincantieri Shipyards, and not the INS Arihant.
oops sorry you are correct, my bad
Post a Comment