Indian nuclear submarines
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Just One Shark In The Deep Blue Ocean
Just One Shark In The Deep Blue Ocean
INS Arihant won’t end the N-submarine debate. It’s just started.
RAJA MENON
The making of a nuclear reactor to power a submarine started under Raja Ramanna in the late ’70s. But the project to build the nuclear submarine in parallel with dry-running the reactor at Kalpakkam began as the Advanced Technology Vehicle programme in the mid-’80s. Until then, it was not at all clear whether India’s first nuclear submarine would be a missile-firing one and, least of all, whether nuclear-tipped missiles were on the horizon. The order from Rajiv Gandhi to weaponise the 1974 nuclear device still lay ahead. But every strategist knew that a nuclear submarine of any kind was the final arbiter of power. Ramanna inducted Vice Admiral M.K. Roy, an aviator admiral and an old college buddy of his, to start the now famous Advanced Technology (ATV) programme to build a nuclear submarine. Again, rumour has it that the then navy chief, the much-admired Admiral Ronnie Pereira, felt that nuclear submarines were premature—that we should learn to walk before running. So, instead of the navy, the project took off under the DRDO and got off to a magnificent financial start as all their projects do. With an immense amount of money—not always accounted for under a visible public head—and with the ‘secret classification’, the project had complete autonomy. Later on, this secretiveness may have been the cause of the huge time overrun—as Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat accused in 1998, only to lose his post in the scandalous manner of his sacking.
The technical heart of this undoubtedly massive achievement was laid with the German HDW project. The overseas part of the project included three big ideas. One team representing Mazagon Dock would learn how to actually construct the body of the submarine—once it had been designed—and to commercially order the 21,000 parts that went into it. Another would oversee the building in Germany, to learn overseeing as well as to form the backbone of the construction team in the years to come. The third group would learn how to design submarines from ikl Lubeck, the German group that quickly recovered the war-time submarine building technology of the Germans. The submarine project, meanwhile, ran into heavy weather with the Deutschmark escalating from four rupees to fifteen. Naval headquarters lost its strategic vision and simply allowed the Mazagon Dock facilities to die. Grade A welders emigrated to Dubai, engineers retired, and eventually all that was left were designers and the knowledge passed on to industry, particularly dynamic companies like Larsen & Toubro, which actually built the hull of INS Arihant. Some of the young naval commanders of the overseeing team eventually became flag officers in charge of putting together the hull sections built by L&T in the Visakhapatnam Yard (incidentally a yard that was also designed by the same officers).
The naval hierarchy was overjoyed that a nuclear submarine was being built—less happy that it was a missile-firing one. Like navies the world over, it knew only its maritime strategy well, but ignored its nuclear strategy. Let it be said also that like all navies, it desperately needed N-subs, while the nation needed a missile-firing one. There is no acrimony here actually; because eventually nuclear subs earn their keep every day of the year. Ballistic missile submarines save nations on that one fateful day, when the enemy’s political leaders look at our SLBMS and stay their hand on the button. Living in a nuclearised neighbourhood, India, unlike all other nuclear submarine-armed countries, built a missile-firing submarine first, and will build a killer submarine later. Unusual, but not erroneous.
What is the strategic significance of this submarine? India’s nuclear doctrine is a no-first-use (NFU) doctrine. This is not so much a strategic choice, but a cultural one. It actually bridges the gap between India’s nuclear tests at Pokhran in 1998, and the Indian government’s long-held declaratory position against nuclear weapons, nuclear tests, the arms race and a nuclear winter. India, the government feels, has been compelled to go nuclear. But it seeks an ethical and moralistic path through the deterrence jungle. One way is to confine itself to an unshakable second strike offered only by ballistic missile submarines. So why didn’t it try getting there earlier? Because like all major strategic decisions in South Asia, certainly in India, the politician understands nothing, the bureaucracy puts its clumsy foot in frequently, and the military—still out of the nuclear decision-making process—is sulking. For the few genuine nuclear strategists in India, there is enough literature and mathematics to show that it will not be the cheapest from the point of view of funding—but it will be the cheapest surviving second strike arsenal, after a first strike.
So when can India hope to have this credible deterrence? The Arihant will probably go to sea operationally in early 2012. Submarines of the Arihant class can be commissioned only at intervals of 30 months, although two years is what is being claimed. So the currently sanctioned force of three will be operational by 2017. Long before that, the K-X—the successor to the 700-km K-15 missile, with a range of 3,000 km—will be ready. This force, with either type of missile, will be adequate for an anti-Pakistan second strike. Against China, the submarine will have to be moved closer to the targets and that will involve tactical and diplomatic challenges. These challenges are recognised by the navy and referred to as ‘battle space management’ problems. The Soviet navy had similar battle space management problems arising due to different reasons, but built their entire navy to win just that one battle. The Chinese have followed this catastrophic example by putting their new SLBMS into a cave. Will the Indians blindly follow? That depends on who will steer India clear of that mess, or the other quagmires still ahead of us—like ‘separating ownership from control’ of nuclear weapons in a submarine already on patrol.
These problems bring us to the calamitous news that India does not have a ‘nuclear staff’. It has a strategic force commander (SFC) with his own strong staff, but the PM, the NSA, and the chairman COSC have no nuclear staff. This is because New Delhi is one of the few capitals of the world where turf battles don’t just end in bloodshed but in the annihilation of an entire group—the military, the only people with operational staff knowledge, annihilated by the victors, the N-physicists, bureaucrats, intelligence-wallahs and DRDO scientists.
The Arihant has a diameter of about 10 metres. Submarine diameters are the key dimension. The US, which has the best rocket technology, is able to put its 8,000-mile ICBM within a 12.8 metre hull. The Russians were unable to confine an ICBM within a 12-metre hull and so their missile tubes protruded two metres outside the pressure hull. The future of India’s nuclear submarine project is entirely in the hands of the rocket scientists. Even if they get 5,000-km (3,000-mile) missiles inside a 10-metre hull, it would be an ‘adequate’ success. In terms of diving depth, submarines built in India are not inferior to the average submarines being built abroad. So although the Arihant has captured the imagination of India as a missile-firing submarine, professionals everywhere in the world will want to know what India’s industrial achievements are in this project. Little noticed may be the fact that the Arihant will have an entirely Indian-designed sonar. Will the Chinese Jin class also have a Chinese sonar, or a reconstituted French one? Since India began building the ATV, submarine reactor design has leapfrogged. The British Astute class and the upgraded Los Angeles will all carry lifetime reactors, unlike the Arihant’s 10-year lifecycle power pack.
The media has enquired whether the Arihant will qualify India for the Security Council. A nuclear navy and an slbm second strike force will undoubtedly take us there, but we aren’t there yet. For a start, we now need to declassify the nuclear submarine project and either build a bigger yard to reduce the interval between boats or build on the west coast too. An slbm force can’t be less than six. Killer submarines cannot number less than eight for a country of India’s size. To build 14 subs from 2010 onwards at the current rate of accretion would take till 2038, by which time Arihant would be due for pension. This isn’t the path to the Council.
The government needs to write a white paper on India’s Nuclear Submarine Force, deploying for it a panel of strategists, industrialists and nuclear engineers, preferably with bipartisan political support. A number of issues need to be addressed, including the indigenisation of high-quality steel, advanced reactors, financial support, management structure, diplomatic cover for overseas deployment, the navy’s hrd and safety issues in Indian and foreign ports.
Only the professionals remember that the outstanding achievement of the US navy’s submarine fleet came from path- breaking management of the N-reactor, submarine construction and the missile programme. The heads of these programmes went on to become international figures, having pioneered many techniques used today in industrial management. Our expat community is being hired worldwide for their competence. So we surely don’t lack talent. Why can’t we hire the best Indians to manage a national project?
(The author is a pioneer of the submarine service and has served on a British naval submarine, commanded two Soviet-bought submarines and headed the kiloclass acquisition and the HDW design technology transfer in Germany.)
Just One Shark In The Deep Blue Ocean
INS Arihant won’t end the N-submarine debate. It’s just started.
RAJA MENON
The making of a nuclear reactor to power a submarine started under Raja Ramanna in the late ’70s. But the project to build the nuclear submarine in parallel with dry-running the reactor at Kalpakkam began as the Advanced Technology Vehicle programme in the mid-’80s. Until then, it was not at all clear whether India’s first nuclear submarine would be a missile-firing one and, least of all, whether nuclear-tipped missiles were on the horizon. The order from Rajiv Gandhi to weaponise the 1974 nuclear device still lay ahead. But every strategist knew that a nuclear submarine of any kind was the final arbiter of power. Ramanna inducted Vice Admiral M.K. Roy, an aviator admiral and an old college buddy of his, to start the now famous Advanced Technology (ATV) programme to build a nuclear submarine. Again, rumour has it that the then navy chief, the much-admired Admiral Ronnie Pereira, felt that nuclear submarines were premature—that we should learn to walk before running. So, instead of the navy, the project took off under the DRDO and got off to a magnificent financial start as all their projects do. With an immense amount of money—not always accounted for under a visible public head—and with the ‘secret classification’, the project had complete autonomy. Later on, this secretiveness may have been the cause of the huge time overrun—as Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat accused in 1998, only to lose his post in the scandalous manner of his sacking.
The technical heart of this undoubtedly massive achievement was laid with the German HDW project. The overseas part of the project included three big ideas. One team representing Mazagon Dock would learn how to actually construct the body of the submarine—once it had been designed—and to commercially order the 21,000 parts that went into it. Another would oversee the building in Germany, to learn overseeing as well as to form the backbone of the construction team in the years to come. The third group would learn how to design submarines from ikl Lubeck, the German group that quickly recovered the war-time submarine building technology of the Germans. The submarine project, meanwhile, ran into heavy weather with the Deutschmark escalating from four rupees to fifteen. Naval headquarters lost its strategic vision and simply allowed the Mazagon Dock facilities to die. Grade A welders emigrated to Dubai, engineers retired, and eventually all that was left were designers and the knowledge passed on to industry, particularly dynamic companies like Larsen & Toubro, which actually built the hull of INS Arihant. Some of the young naval commanders of the overseeing team eventually became flag officers in charge of putting together the hull sections built by L&T in the Visakhapatnam Yard (incidentally a yard that was also designed by the same officers).
The naval hierarchy was overjoyed that a nuclear submarine was being built—less happy that it was a missile-firing one. Like navies the world over, it knew only its maritime strategy well, but ignored its nuclear strategy. Let it be said also that like all navies, it desperately needed N-subs, while the nation needed a missile-firing one. There is no acrimony here actually; because eventually nuclear subs earn their keep every day of the year. Ballistic missile submarines save nations on that one fateful day, when the enemy’s political leaders look at our SLBMS and stay their hand on the button. Living in a nuclearised neighbourhood, India, unlike all other nuclear submarine-armed countries, built a missile-firing submarine first, and will build a killer submarine later. Unusual, but not erroneous.
What is the strategic significance of this submarine? India’s nuclear doctrine is a no-first-use (NFU) doctrine. This is not so much a strategic choice, but a cultural one. It actually bridges the gap between India’s nuclear tests at Pokhran in 1998, and the Indian government’s long-held declaratory position against nuclear weapons, nuclear tests, the arms race and a nuclear winter. India, the government feels, has been compelled to go nuclear. But it seeks an ethical and moralistic path through the deterrence jungle. One way is to confine itself to an unshakable second strike offered only by ballistic missile submarines. So why didn’t it try getting there earlier? Because like all major strategic decisions in South Asia, certainly in India, the politician understands nothing, the bureaucracy puts its clumsy foot in frequently, and the military—still out of the nuclear decision-making process—is sulking. For the few genuine nuclear strategists in India, there is enough literature and mathematics to show that it will not be the cheapest from the point of view of funding—but it will be the cheapest surviving second strike arsenal, after a first strike.
So when can India hope to have this credible deterrence? The Arihant will probably go to sea operationally in early 2012. Submarines of the Arihant class can be commissioned only at intervals of 30 months, although two years is what is being claimed. So the currently sanctioned force of three will be operational by 2017. Long before that, the K-X—the successor to the 700-km K-15 missile, with a range of 3,000 km—will be ready. This force, with either type of missile, will be adequate for an anti-Pakistan second strike. Against China, the submarine will have to be moved closer to the targets and that will involve tactical and diplomatic challenges. These challenges are recognised by the navy and referred to as ‘battle space management’ problems. The Soviet navy had similar battle space management problems arising due to different reasons, but built their entire navy to win just that one battle. The Chinese have followed this catastrophic example by putting their new SLBMS into a cave. Will the Indians blindly follow? That depends on who will steer India clear of that mess, or the other quagmires still ahead of us—like ‘separating ownership from control’ of nuclear weapons in a submarine already on patrol.
These problems bring us to the calamitous news that India does not have a ‘nuclear staff’. It has a strategic force commander (SFC) with his own strong staff, but the PM, the NSA, and the chairman COSC have no nuclear staff. This is because New Delhi is one of the few capitals of the world where turf battles don’t just end in bloodshed but in the annihilation of an entire group—the military, the only people with operational staff knowledge, annihilated by the victors, the N-physicists, bureaucrats, intelligence-wallahs and DRDO scientists.
The Arihant has a diameter of about 10 metres. Submarine diameters are the key dimension. The US, which has the best rocket technology, is able to put its 8,000-mile ICBM within a 12.8 metre hull. The Russians were unable to confine an ICBM within a 12-metre hull and so their missile tubes protruded two metres outside the pressure hull. The future of India’s nuclear submarine project is entirely in the hands of the rocket scientists. Even if they get 5,000-km (3,000-mile) missiles inside a 10-metre hull, it would be an ‘adequate’ success. In terms of diving depth, submarines built in India are not inferior to the average submarines being built abroad. So although the Arihant has captured the imagination of India as a missile-firing submarine, professionals everywhere in the world will want to know what India’s industrial achievements are in this project. Little noticed may be the fact that the Arihant will have an entirely Indian-designed sonar. Will the Chinese Jin class also have a Chinese sonar, or a reconstituted French one? Since India began building the ATV, submarine reactor design has leapfrogged. The British Astute class and the upgraded Los Angeles will all carry lifetime reactors, unlike the Arihant’s 10-year lifecycle power pack.
The media has enquired whether the Arihant will qualify India for the Security Council. A nuclear navy and an slbm second strike force will undoubtedly take us there, but we aren’t there yet. For a start, we now need to declassify the nuclear submarine project and either build a bigger yard to reduce the interval between boats or build on the west coast too. An slbm force can’t be less than six. Killer submarines cannot number less than eight for a country of India’s size. To build 14 subs from 2010 onwards at the current rate of accretion would take till 2038, by which time Arihant would be due for pension. This isn’t the path to the Council.
The government needs to write a white paper on India’s Nuclear Submarine Force, deploying for it a panel of strategists, industrialists and nuclear engineers, preferably with bipartisan political support. A number of issues need to be addressed, including the indigenisation of high-quality steel, advanced reactors, financial support, management structure, diplomatic cover for overseas deployment, the navy’s hrd and safety issues in Indian and foreign ports.
Only the professionals remember that the outstanding achievement of the US navy’s submarine fleet came from path- breaking management of the N-reactor, submarine construction and the missile programme. The heads of these programmes went on to become international figures, having pioneered many techniques used today in industrial management. Our expat community is being hired worldwide for their competence. So we surely don’t lack talent. Why can’t we hire the best Indians to manage a national project?
(The author is a pioneer of the submarine service and has served on a British naval submarine, commanded two Soviet-bought submarines and headed the kiloclass acquisition and the HDW design technology transfer in Germany.)
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India ups ante on coastal security
India's first indigenously developed nuclear-powered submarine INS Arihant (destroyer of enemies) equipped with twelve K-15 ballistic missile with a range of 700-kms was launched on July 26 by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Speaking at the function held as part of the launching of the submarine at the Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam, the Prime Minister observed that India had finally joined the elite group of five countries, US, UK, Russia, France and China, capable of building nuclear-powered under-sea vessels.
The 110-mt long, 11-metre wide INS Arihant capable of displacing 6,000 tons of water will have to go through harbour, sea and weapons trials before becoming fully operational and this process is expected to take a minimum of two years for completion.
Designed and developed by the Indian Navy, the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) with Russian assistance and participation of a number of Indian industries, the INS Arihant powered with a 85-MW miniaturized nuclear reactor can acquire surface speeds of 22-28 kmph and submerged speed of up to 44-kmph.
Incidentally, Manmohan Singh and Defence Minister Antony made a special mention of the Russian contribution that helped India realize a historic milestone in the challenging enterprise of building a nuclear submarine through the route of public-private partnership.
Significantly, the INS Arihant, which marks 25 years long diligent research work and determined developmental efforts, in the face of a global technology denial regime, was originally conceived in 1971 after China launched its own nuclear submarine. However, the development of the submarine could only be taken up in 1984 as part of the Advanced Technology vessel (ATC) project with the support of the erstwhile Soviet Union. But its break-up in the early 1990s slowed down the INS Arihant's development. Asserted Vice Admiral (Rtd) DSP Verma, who heads the ATV project, Because of the technology denial, everything was built from a scratch.
Importantly, the Prime Minister underscored the need for vigilant coastal security. Said he: The sea is becoming increasingly relevant in the context of India 's security interests and we must readjust our military preparedness to this changing environment.
Clearly, the INS Arihant has helped India take a major step towards completing the third leg of its nuclear triad the ability to fire nukes from land, air and sea. The first two legs of the triad in the form of bombers like the SU-30MKI capable of delivering nuclear weapons and Agni series of road and rail mobile missiles are already in place.
As it is, the doctrine of nuclear triad is quite crucial to India 's defence since the country has declared the no first use of nuclear weapons. By all count, our weapons system should be sturdy enough to survive the impact of a first strike for immediate retaliation.
Eventually, the US$2.9b Arihant will have its K-15 ballistic missiles (also called Sagarika) replaced by a 3,500-km range K-X class missile. This is a very big capability. It means we can launch missiles with nuclear warheads from ground, drop nuclear bombs from air and also fire them from under sea said sources in the DRDO.
As things stand now, the INS Arihant could help India possess a blue water navy capable of exercising its influence over a vast stretch of the oceanic waters. For this leviathan packed with a miniature nuclear reactor can keep moving stealthily in the depth of water for a long time.
In distinct contrast, a diesel-powered submarine which is required to move up to the surface everyday for ejecting carbon dioxide produced by the generator and recharging can easily be detected by the adversaries. Pointed out a DRDO official, the turbine operating on enriched uranium in the INS Arihant is a clean system. But a diesel generator emits carbon dioxide. You cannot discharge it into the water. So the submarine has to be brought up to the surface every day to eject carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Alarmed by the massive Chinese naval build-up, India has unveiled a plan to possess three more nuclear submarines modeled on the Russian Akula class under-sea vessels to realize its goal of Blue Water Navy equipped with a second strike capability.
However, India's submarine fleet pales into insignificance compared to the over 100 submarines, including many nuclear-powered submarines, being operated by the Chinese navy which is now preparing to challenge the US dominance of the global oceanic waters.
On its part, New Delhi has entered into an agreement with Moscow for the leasing of two nuclear-power Nerpa submarines for a period of 10 years. The delivery schedule of the Nerpa to the Indian navy has been hit by a mishap the Russian nuke submarine sustained during under-sea trials.
Besides, a number of Indian private sector companies have significantly contributed to the realization of the Arihant. The heavy engineering giant L&T's Hazira complex began steel-cutting for the submarines construction in 1998 when former President Kalam was the Defence Minister's scientific adviser.
According to L&T sources, its submarine design centre used the latest 3D modeling and product data management software. Launching the Arihant is a great event for the nation because we are in the select club of countries having a nuclear-powered submarine said Dr A Sivathanu Pillai, DRDO's Chief Controller (Research and Development).
The 85 MW Pressurized Heavy Water (PHW) reactor for the submarine was designed and developed by BARC. Though the country has rich experience in building PHW rectors based on natural uranium as fuel and heavy water as coolant, the reactor used in the INS Arihant utilizes enriched uranium as fuel and light water as both coolant and moderator. There is no gainsaying, this is the first time that India 's nuclear establishment has built such a reactor.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has termed the induction of INS Arihant into the Indian Navy as a destabilizing step and said it was capable of defending itself in the face of all such challenges. A statement issued by Pakistan 's External Affairs Ministry in Islamabad said, without entering into an arms race with India, Pakistan will take all appropriate steps to safeguard its security and maintain strategic balance in South Asia.
Central Chronicle - Madhya Pradesh's News Portal
India's first indigenously developed nuclear-powered submarine INS Arihant (destroyer of enemies) equipped with twelve K-15 ballistic missile with a range of 700-kms was launched on July 26 by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Speaking at the function held as part of the launching of the submarine at the Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam, the Prime Minister observed that India had finally joined the elite group of five countries, US, UK, Russia, France and China, capable of building nuclear-powered under-sea vessels.
The 110-mt long, 11-metre wide INS Arihant capable of displacing 6,000 tons of water will have to go through harbour, sea and weapons trials before becoming fully operational and this process is expected to take a minimum of two years for completion.
Designed and developed by the Indian Navy, the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) with Russian assistance and participation of a number of Indian industries, the INS Arihant powered with a 85-MW miniaturized nuclear reactor can acquire surface speeds of 22-28 kmph and submerged speed of up to 44-kmph.
Incidentally, Manmohan Singh and Defence Minister Antony made a special mention of the Russian contribution that helped India realize a historic milestone in the challenging enterprise of building a nuclear submarine through the route of public-private partnership.
Significantly, the INS Arihant, which marks 25 years long diligent research work and determined developmental efforts, in the face of a global technology denial regime, was originally conceived in 1971 after China launched its own nuclear submarine. However, the development of the submarine could only be taken up in 1984 as part of the Advanced Technology vessel (ATC) project with the support of the erstwhile Soviet Union. But its break-up in the early 1990s slowed down the INS Arihant's development. Asserted Vice Admiral (Rtd) DSP Verma, who heads the ATV project, Because of the technology denial, everything was built from a scratch.
Importantly, the Prime Minister underscored the need for vigilant coastal security. Said he: The sea is becoming increasingly relevant in the context of India 's security interests and we must readjust our military preparedness to this changing environment.
Clearly, the INS Arihant has helped India take a major step towards completing the third leg of its nuclear triad the ability to fire nukes from land, air and sea. The first two legs of the triad in the form of bombers like the SU-30MKI capable of delivering nuclear weapons and Agni series of road and rail mobile missiles are already in place.
As it is, the doctrine of nuclear triad is quite crucial to India 's defence since the country has declared the no first use of nuclear weapons. By all count, our weapons system should be sturdy enough to survive the impact of a first strike for immediate retaliation.
Eventually, the US$2.9b Arihant will have its K-15 ballistic missiles (also called Sagarika) replaced by a 3,500-km range K-X class missile. This is a very big capability. It means we can launch missiles with nuclear warheads from ground, drop nuclear bombs from air and also fire them from under sea said sources in the DRDO.
As things stand now, the INS Arihant could help India possess a blue water navy capable of exercising its influence over a vast stretch of the oceanic waters. For this leviathan packed with a miniature nuclear reactor can keep moving stealthily in the depth of water for a long time.
In distinct contrast, a diesel-powered submarine which is required to move up to the surface everyday for ejecting carbon dioxide produced by the generator and recharging can easily be detected by the adversaries. Pointed out a DRDO official, the turbine operating on enriched uranium in the INS Arihant is a clean system. But a diesel generator emits carbon dioxide. You cannot discharge it into the water. So the submarine has to be brought up to the surface every day to eject carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Alarmed by the massive Chinese naval build-up, India has unveiled a plan to possess three more nuclear submarines modeled on the Russian Akula class under-sea vessels to realize its goal of Blue Water Navy equipped with a second strike capability.
However, India's submarine fleet pales into insignificance compared to the over 100 submarines, including many nuclear-powered submarines, being operated by the Chinese navy which is now preparing to challenge the US dominance of the global oceanic waters.
On its part, New Delhi has entered into an agreement with Moscow for the leasing of two nuclear-power Nerpa submarines for a period of 10 years. The delivery schedule of the Nerpa to the Indian navy has been hit by a mishap the Russian nuke submarine sustained during under-sea trials.
Besides, a number of Indian private sector companies have significantly contributed to the realization of the Arihant. The heavy engineering giant L&T's Hazira complex began steel-cutting for the submarines construction in 1998 when former President Kalam was the Defence Minister's scientific adviser.
According to L&T sources, its submarine design centre used the latest 3D modeling and product data management software. Launching the Arihant is a great event for the nation because we are in the select club of countries having a nuclear-powered submarine said Dr A Sivathanu Pillai, DRDO's Chief Controller (Research and Development).
The 85 MW Pressurized Heavy Water (PHW) reactor for the submarine was designed and developed by BARC. Though the country has rich experience in building PHW rectors based on natural uranium as fuel and heavy water as coolant, the reactor used in the INS Arihant utilizes enriched uranium as fuel and light water as both coolant and moderator. There is no gainsaying, this is the first time that India 's nuclear establishment has built such a reactor.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has termed the induction of INS Arihant into the Indian Navy as a destabilizing step and said it was capable of defending itself in the face of all such challenges. A statement issued by Pakistan 's External Affairs Ministry in Islamabad said, without entering into an arms race with India, Pakistan will take all appropriate steps to safeguard its security and maintain strategic balance in South Asia.
Central Chronicle - Madhya Pradesh's News Portal
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Premvir Das: INS Arihant - A watershed moment
A key component of our total defence capability
India's first nuclear submarine will be a key component of our total defence capability.
There are moments that are more definable than others, the watershed points in life, whether of a nation, an institution or an individual. One such moment, whose time should actually have come earlier, came to the Indian Navy with the launch of our own nuclear-powered submarine, INS Arihant, in Visakhapatnam on July 26, by the Prime Minister. There have been other such events in the sixty-year lifespan of the Indian Navy, induction of the cruiser INS Delhi in 1953, being the first, followed in succession by others. The acquisition of the aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, in 1961, made the young Service a ‘blue water’ force, the only regional country to have that claim. Inductions of the first submarine, INS Kalvari in 1967 and of the Missile Boats (which were to wreak havoc on Karachi on December 4, 1971) in 1968, were others. Not to be left behind, was the switch of maritime air surveillance aircraft from the IAF to the Navy in the late 1970s which made the seagoing force a self-sufficient entity. To this list can be added the acquisition of INS Viraat in 1987, making us a ‘two aircraft carrier Navy’, the lease of the nuclear-powered submarine, INS Chakra in 1988 and, arguably, the induction of INS Jalashva (formerly USS Trenton) a few years ago which has enabled credible assistance to be provided in the region during natural calamities such as the tsunami of 2004. All of these and, of course, many other milestones in afloat as well as shore support facilities have made the Indian Navy the leading regional maritime power that it is. To this impressive list must now be added the launch of INS Arihant.
It was over two decades ago that we embarked on a project termed the ATV, or Advanced Technology Vessel. As far back as the mid-1970s, a small unit called Project 932 was constituted under a Commander rank officer under the aegis of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE)—its task: to develop feasibility of a small reactor which could fit within a submarine hull. This project moved slowly and with mixed results, with less than enthusiastic support from the Navy’s hierarchy. In 1980, it nearly came to a dead halt. An officer working in the project, not a nuclear reactor engineer but one who had acquired deep knowledge in this field on his own, persuaded the then Navy Chief that the DAE design was seriously flawed. The matter was taken up with the then Scientific Adviser in the Ministry of Defence, Dr Raja Ramanna — a distinguished nuclear scientist himself — but without resolution. The result was that the 932, already on slow march, ground to a halt. The officer who had questioned the design being developed left the Navy and, whilst en route to the US, was arrested at the airport for possessing highly classified literature which later turned out to be all in the public domain. He spent some years in prison, argued his own case before the court and was acquitted, with strictures passed against the DAE.
It was not until the mid-1980s that the concept was revived as the ATV Project, this time under the Department of Defence Research and Development (DRDO). By 1989, a full-fledged organisation had been put in place with outlying units at Kalpakkam (under DAE for reactor design) and Hyderabad (for developing auxiliaries and systems). We then entered into an agreement with Russia for developmental and design assistance for a nuclear-powered submarine. From then to now has been a long journey of two decades with many ups and downs but with some very substantial long-term gains. Indigenous participation — especially of private sector companies, Larsen and Toubro and Walchand, to name only two — has been very encouraging. Aside from the reactor, we now have manufacturers who can build and weld submarine hull sections which can stand pressures at great depths. Capacity to build pipes and cables, compressors and air conditioning machinery, pumps, gear boxes and generators, all strengthened for underwater operations has been created within the country. To this should be added interfacing of electronic systems from several sources—no easy task. So, there is much to be proud of and little to moan about the delay as the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) can be expected to do. The larger vision is, perhaps correctly, not part of his duty or responsibility; in any event, there is no accountability.
It has been excitedly proclaimed by some in the media that India now has a triad of nuclear weapon delivery capability, the land and air elements being in place already. Nothing can be farther from the reality. Some trials of a rocket launch from a fixed underwater platform have reportedly been carried out but these do not translate themselves into an on-board capability. That will also come at some time in the future but that moment is not now. An underwater vertical launch system is about the most sophisticated and complex weapon and it is not going to happen anytime soon. For the present, a few years are needed to prove the platform and its systems, first on the surface in harbour, then on the surface at sea and finally, under water, progressively at increasing depths. All along there will be need for corrections and modifications. The nuclear reactor itself has to be made ‘critical’. So, there is need to move slowly with full regard to safety and without getting hustled by those sections who know not what they say. The fact that a leased nuclear submarine of the Russian Akula class will be operational with the Navy very soon should be a confidence-generating feature of the plan.
INS Arihant will, happily, not be a ‘one alone’ thing. Reports have it that the government has sanctioned at least three submarines of this type already. Nuclear-powered submarines capable of launching long-range ballistic missiles are strategic, not tactical, weapons. In the global strategic equations from which India cannot remain excluded for very long, they will be an important component of our total national power. It is a moment of satisfaction for every Indian, not just those who go to sea. The launch of INS Arihant is, undoubtedly, a watershed not just for the Indian Navy, but for the nation.
The author is a former Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Naval Command
Premvir Das: INS Arihant - A watershed moment
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cross posting:
why this is was needed to be announced:
India defines outer limit of weapons programme
why this is was needed to be announced:
India defines outer limit of weapons programme
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Nuclear arm
With the launch of INS Arihant, India, which already can fire nuclear missiles from the ground and the air, completes its nuclear triad.
The Pressurised Water Reactor that has been operating at Kalpakkam for three years. An identical reactor will power INS Arihant.
THE tall S. Basu is a man who shuns the limelight and the big talk. To the outside world, he is the Director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) Facilities at Kalpakkam. What was kept a secret was that he was also the Project Director of the Plutonium Recyling Project (PRP) at Kalpakkam. The PRP was a facade behind which BARC, a facility of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), built India’s first indigenous Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR). BARC also built another identical PWR, which is at the heart of India’s first nuclear-powered submarine, INS Arihant.
Both the PWRs can generate 80 MWe. Enriched uranium is the fuel that powers them. Light water acts as coolant and moderator. The Rare Materials Project (RMP) at Ratnahalli near Mysore, another DAE facility, produced the enriched uranium required for operating the two PWRs.
With the launching of INS Arihant on July 26, Basu is a proud man. “Working on the project and completing it has been a big achievement. As an engineer, this is the best possible thing I could have done in my life. The boat is an engineer’s dream which has become a reality,” he said.
July 26 was a historic day not only for Basu but for hundreds of personnel of the DAE, the Navy and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) when the sluice gates of the dry dock in the Ship Building Centre at Visakhapatnam harbour opened, sea water gushed in and INS Arihant started floating. The launch propelled India into an exclusive club of countries that possess their own nuclear-powered submarines, which already has five members – Russia, the United States, France, the United Kingdom and China. As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who launched the submarine, said, the occasion marked the culmination of “years of hard work, dedication and perseverance”.
The story of the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) programme, as the project to build the submarine was codenamed, is a remarkable one of coordination among the Navy, the DAE and the DRDO and of public-private partnership. The Prime Minister specifically thanked “our Russian friends for their consistent and invaluable cooperation, which symbolises the close strategic partnership that we enjoy with Russia”.
The PWR on board the submarine will be started up after about a year. By that time, the boat will be fitted with all equipment. Subsequently, it will undergo harbour acceptance and sea acceptance trials, before it is declared operational within two years from now. The submarine is about 111 metres long, 11 m broad and about 15 m tall. It has a surface displacement of 6,000 tonnes.
What will make Arihant a lethal platform is that it will be armed with K-15 ballistic missiles, which will be fired from under water. A booster will erupt into life under water and this will drive the missile to surface, then it will climb 20 km into the air, cut a parabolic path and hit targets on land. The K-15 missiles, developed by the DRDO, are already under production. The DRDO has test-fired them several times from submerged pontoons off the coast of Visakhapatnam. They can carry both conventional and nuclear warheads. They are 10.4 metres tall and weigh 6.3 tonnes each. They have a range of 700 km. Their warheads weigh about a 1,000 kg.
The significance of the deployment of K-15 missiles on board the Arihant is that it will complete India’s nuclear triad. It already can fire missiles (surface-to-surface) with nuclear warheads from the ground; it can deliver nuclear weapons from aircraft; and now it can launch missiles with nuclear warheads from under water.
While the Navy designed and built the boat at Visakhapatnam and BARC provided the nuclear propulsion, the DRDO also made important contributions to the project.
M. Natarajan, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister and Director-General of the DRDO, said, “While a number of DRDO laboratories made their own contribution [to the ATV programme], I must acknowledge the bigger role played by the naval scientists and engineers working with the ATV project and the submarine design group. The funding of the ATV programme was through the DRDO.”
While the Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL), Kochi, contributed sensors to Arihant, special acoustics were done by the Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL), Visakhapatnam. Other DRDO laboratories developed “the submarine’s control systems, not the entire systems, but certain modules,” said Natarajan.
W. Selvamurthy, Chief Controller, R&D (Life Sciences and Human Resources), DRDO, called the launching of INS Arihant “a major milestone in building India’s strategic defence and second strike capability”. Building the boat was a demonstration of India’s scientific prowess, its technical skills and a dynamic programme of managing a huge team of hundreds of persons who worked in this massive project. “It is a demonstration that we can undertake such major technological initiatives,” Dr. Selvamurthy said.
Srikumar Banerjee, Director, BARC, called the boat of this type “a major technology in itself”. He added, “The whole platform is a very complex combination of various technologies. That is why we are happy that it has reached fruition.”
An important advantage of a nuclear-powered submarine is that it can lurk under water for long durations unlike its conventional diesel-electric counterparts, which have to come to the surface periodically to recharge their batteries. This makes the latter vulnerable to attacks by the enemy. Nuclear-powered submarines are faster than diesel-electric boats. Besides, their ability to promenade the sea far and wide provides blue-water capability to the navy that possesses them.
Rear Admiral Michael Moraes, Flag Officer Commanding (submarines), said, “Any strong nation would like to have a submarine fleet because they can go anywhere in the world.” A nuclear-powered submarine has unlimited endurance. It is fast. The only limiting factor is the crew’s endurance and psychology. Moraes was sure the design of Arihant was “quite good”. The crew needed to man Arihant had already been trained. For submarines to survive, “It is a constant battle between stealth technology and detection technology,” he said. Modern submarines had a lot of “quieting features”. India had 16 conventional submarines. More would be built. It would be ideal for India to have four SSBNs and nine SSNs. (Here SS denotes submersible ship; B, ballistic missile; and N, nuclear-powered.)
The significance of BARC developing the PWRs was, in the estimate of Anil Kakodkar, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, “a demonstration that we have our own indigenous PWR technology”. Kakodkar, who is also Secretary, DAE, was one of the original designers of the PWR. He said, “This PWR technology is very complex. You have to make it extremely compact and pack it in the cramped space of the submarine’s hull. It was a big challenge.”
Kakodkar said BARC developing this PWR was an important development because it “marks the beginning of the indigenous PWR capability”. The PWR technology was most popular worldwide for electricity generation. India building this PWR acquired significance in the context of it planning to import PWRs from France, Russia and the U.S. for electricity generation. Kakodkar said India already had a family of a variety of reactors. It had built 15 “world-class” Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) that generated electricity. These PHWRs used natural uranium as fuel and heavy water as both coolant and moderator, he said. India was building the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam, which was “globally advanced”, and its breeders would use plutonium-uranium oxide as fuel.
It would soon start building the Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR), which was “globally unique”, Kakodkar said. The AHWR would use thorium as fuel. BARC was also developing the Compact High Temperature Reactor (CHTR) to split hydrogen from water. Hydrogen would be the fuel of the future. On August 2, the DAE lifted the veil of secrecy that it had thrown over its PRP, which developed the PWR that powers INS Arihant. Reporters were shown the facility at Kalpakkam that houses the PWR. It is a nondescript building, situated on the shore of the Bay of Bengal. Except for the manicured lawns and a sculpture of a dolphin drenched by a fountain, no aesthetic sense is evident.
Inside a huge hall sits the PWR. There is a big pressure hull, a biological shielding tank with the reactor core inside surrounded by water, a reactor pressure vessel with fuel inside, steam generator, heat exchangers, a control room and an auxiliary control room. It is called pressure hull because it enables the boat to withstand the pressure exerted on it by sea water on all sides when it dives into the sea. The reactor was running when reporters went around the plant. The turbine was rotating at 120 revolutions per minute, enough to provide a speed of 12 knots an hour to Arihant.
“The land-based PWR and the submarine version are on a 1:1 scale. This shore-based reactor has been running smoothly for the past three years,” said A. Moorthi, Scientific Officer, BARC.
For Basu, the D-day was September 22, 2006, when the shore-based PWR started operating. “All aspects of the project were done for the first time by us. We operate this reactor to generate data to be used for the sea-going version. We are doing a lot of research and development [R&D] that will go into future PWRs,” he said.
Banerjee explained the several challenges the designers faced in developing a reactor for submarine application. It was a different ballgame altogether to build a nuclear-powered pack for a submarine than building one on the shore. The first and foremost was that it should be compact enough to be packed into the cramped space inside the boat. Its weight should be minimal. Another requirement was that the power in the reactor in a submarine should rise fast – from 25 per cent to 100 per cent within a few minutes. “It is this attribute that gives the submarine its capability of attaining full speed from its cruising speed within a short time,” he said.
A submarine is a moving platform. It is submerged in water too. It undergoes pitching and rolling and other motions. The boat also faces the danger of being ripped apart from depth-charges. “Against these odds, we have designed and developed this reactor. It is a major achievement,” said Banerjee. The PWR in Arihant is designed for fast manoeuvres and a rapid speed pick-up.
There are novelties not only in its design but in its manufacturing. The steam generator, which produce super-heated steam to drive the turbine, is a novelty in itself. There are also novelties in the design and manufacture of heat exchangers, control rod mechanisms, pressurisers and so on.
Safety was the foremost consideration in building this PWR because a submarine operated in an isolated condition, without having any support from outside, said Banerjee. The vessel is designed in such a manner that it releases no radioactivity into the surroundings in the submerged condition.
Asked whether the Russians helped in designing and building the PWR, Kakodkar, Banerjee and Basu were emphatic that BARC developed it on its own. Banerjee said: “The Russians were consultants. The consultancy was done for the whole submarine, not for the power part alone.” Basu asserted, “Everything is totally indigenous [in this PWR]…. We developed it. It is our own reactor. We did not take it from anybody else.”
M.R. Srinivasan, former AEC Chairman, was also emphatic that the DAE developed the reactor on its own. While building the reactor “was always a part of the DAE’s activity”, the Navy’s role was to design and build the submarine, he said. So it was a joint DAE-Navy project. Srinivasan said, “The naval personnel had some assistance from Russia in designing the submarine, but the reactor is a totally Indian effort. The reactor, its components including the pressure vessels, and its fuel were made in India by Indian industry.”
The ATV programme has a chequered history. According to Srinivasan, the idea of building a nuclear-powered submarine took shape about 25 years ago. If India’s nuclear weapons had to survive a first strike, they should either be kept in silos or deployed in submarines. Since India had accepted the principle of “no first use”, that is, it will not use nuclear weapons first, it decided that its nuclear weapons should be made secure not only in land-bases but in submarines.
The decision that the DAE should build the propulsion for a nuclear-powered submarine was taken during Indira Gandhi’s time and it was followed up during Rajiv Gandhi’s prime ministership. While the earlier view was to use plutonium as fuel for the nuclear propulsion, it was later decided that India should use enriched uranium, produced at the Rare Materials Plant, to fuel the reactor.
Srinivasan called the launching of Arihant “a creditable achievement”. “It took time, but a lot of technologies had to be developed in the country. The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and the Indian industry have done a very good job,” he said.
While Larsen & Toubro did the tough job of building the hull, there were contributions from Walchandnagar Industries Limited and others.
With the launch of INS Arihant, India, which already can fire nuclear missiles from the ground and the air, completes its nuclear triad.
The Pressurised Water Reactor that has been operating at Kalpakkam for three years. An identical reactor will power INS Arihant.
THE tall S. Basu is a man who shuns the limelight and the big talk. To the outside world, he is the Director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) Facilities at Kalpakkam. What was kept a secret was that he was also the Project Director of the Plutonium Recyling Project (PRP) at Kalpakkam. The PRP was a facade behind which BARC, a facility of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), built India’s first indigenous Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR). BARC also built another identical PWR, which is at the heart of India’s first nuclear-powered submarine, INS Arihant.
Both the PWRs can generate 80 MWe. Enriched uranium is the fuel that powers them. Light water acts as coolant and moderator. The Rare Materials Project (RMP) at Ratnahalli near Mysore, another DAE facility, produced the enriched uranium required for operating the two PWRs.
With the launching of INS Arihant on July 26, Basu is a proud man. “Working on the project and completing it has been a big achievement. As an engineer, this is the best possible thing I could have done in my life. The boat is an engineer’s dream which has become a reality,” he said.
July 26 was a historic day not only for Basu but for hundreds of personnel of the DAE, the Navy and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) when the sluice gates of the dry dock in the Ship Building Centre at Visakhapatnam harbour opened, sea water gushed in and INS Arihant started floating. The launch propelled India into an exclusive club of countries that possess their own nuclear-powered submarines, which already has five members – Russia, the United States, France, the United Kingdom and China. As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who launched the submarine, said, the occasion marked the culmination of “years of hard work, dedication and perseverance”.
The story of the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) programme, as the project to build the submarine was codenamed, is a remarkable one of coordination among the Navy, the DAE and the DRDO and of public-private partnership. The Prime Minister specifically thanked “our Russian friends for their consistent and invaluable cooperation, which symbolises the close strategic partnership that we enjoy with Russia”.
The PWR on board the submarine will be started up after about a year. By that time, the boat will be fitted with all equipment. Subsequently, it will undergo harbour acceptance and sea acceptance trials, before it is declared operational within two years from now. The submarine is about 111 metres long, 11 m broad and about 15 m tall. It has a surface displacement of 6,000 tonnes.
What will make Arihant a lethal platform is that it will be armed with K-15 ballistic missiles, which will be fired from under water. A booster will erupt into life under water and this will drive the missile to surface, then it will climb 20 km into the air, cut a parabolic path and hit targets on land. The K-15 missiles, developed by the DRDO, are already under production. The DRDO has test-fired them several times from submerged pontoons off the coast of Visakhapatnam. They can carry both conventional and nuclear warheads. They are 10.4 metres tall and weigh 6.3 tonnes each. They have a range of 700 km. Their warheads weigh about a 1,000 kg.
The significance of the deployment of K-15 missiles on board the Arihant is that it will complete India’s nuclear triad. It already can fire missiles (surface-to-surface) with nuclear warheads from the ground; it can deliver nuclear weapons from aircraft; and now it can launch missiles with nuclear warheads from under water.
While the Navy designed and built the boat at Visakhapatnam and BARC provided the nuclear propulsion, the DRDO also made important contributions to the project.
M. Natarajan, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister and Director-General of the DRDO, said, “While a number of DRDO laboratories made their own contribution [to the ATV programme], I must acknowledge the bigger role played by the naval scientists and engineers working with the ATV project and the submarine design group. The funding of the ATV programme was through the DRDO.”
While the Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL), Kochi, contributed sensors to Arihant, special acoustics were done by the Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL), Visakhapatnam. Other DRDO laboratories developed “the submarine’s control systems, not the entire systems, but certain modules,” said Natarajan.
W. Selvamurthy, Chief Controller, R&D (Life Sciences and Human Resources), DRDO, called the launching of INS Arihant “a major milestone in building India’s strategic defence and second strike capability”. Building the boat was a demonstration of India’s scientific prowess, its technical skills and a dynamic programme of managing a huge team of hundreds of persons who worked in this massive project. “It is a demonstration that we can undertake such major technological initiatives,” Dr. Selvamurthy said.
Srikumar Banerjee, Director, BARC, called the boat of this type “a major technology in itself”. He added, “The whole platform is a very complex combination of various technologies. That is why we are happy that it has reached fruition.”
An important advantage of a nuclear-powered submarine is that it can lurk under water for long durations unlike its conventional diesel-electric counterparts, which have to come to the surface periodically to recharge their batteries. This makes the latter vulnerable to attacks by the enemy. Nuclear-powered submarines are faster than diesel-electric boats. Besides, their ability to promenade the sea far and wide provides blue-water capability to the navy that possesses them.
Rear Admiral Michael Moraes, Flag Officer Commanding (submarines), said, “Any strong nation would like to have a submarine fleet because they can go anywhere in the world.” A nuclear-powered submarine has unlimited endurance. It is fast. The only limiting factor is the crew’s endurance and psychology. Moraes was sure the design of Arihant was “quite good”. The crew needed to man Arihant had already been trained. For submarines to survive, “It is a constant battle between stealth technology and detection technology,” he said. Modern submarines had a lot of “quieting features”. India had 16 conventional submarines. More would be built. It would be ideal for India to have four SSBNs and nine SSNs. (Here SS denotes submersible ship; B, ballistic missile; and N, nuclear-powered.)
The significance of BARC developing the PWRs was, in the estimate of Anil Kakodkar, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, “a demonstration that we have our own indigenous PWR technology”. Kakodkar, who is also Secretary, DAE, was one of the original designers of the PWR. He said, “This PWR technology is very complex. You have to make it extremely compact and pack it in the cramped space of the submarine’s hull. It was a big challenge.”
Kakodkar said BARC developing this PWR was an important development because it “marks the beginning of the indigenous PWR capability”. The PWR technology was most popular worldwide for electricity generation. India building this PWR acquired significance in the context of it planning to import PWRs from France, Russia and the U.S. for electricity generation. Kakodkar said India already had a family of a variety of reactors. It had built 15 “world-class” Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) that generated electricity. These PHWRs used natural uranium as fuel and heavy water as both coolant and moderator, he said. India was building the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam, which was “globally advanced”, and its breeders would use plutonium-uranium oxide as fuel.
It would soon start building the Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR), which was “globally unique”, Kakodkar said. The AHWR would use thorium as fuel. BARC was also developing the Compact High Temperature Reactor (CHTR) to split hydrogen from water. Hydrogen would be the fuel of the future. On August 2, the DAE lifted the veil of secrecy that it had thrown over its PRP, which developed the PWR that powers INS Arihant. Reporters were shown the facility at Kalpakkam that houses the PWR. It is a nondescript building, situated on the shore of the Bay of Bengal. Except for the manicured lawns and a sculpture of a dolphin drenched by a fountain, no aesthetic sense is evident.
Inside a huge hall sits the PWR. There is a big pressure hull, a biological shielding tank with the reactor core inside surrounded by water, a reactor pressure vessel with fuel inside, steam generator, heat exchangers, a control room and an auxiliary control room. It is called pressure hull because it enables the boat to withstand the pressure exerted on it by sea water on all sides when it dives into the sea. The reactor was running when reporters went around the plant. The turbine was rotating at 120 revolutions per minute, enough to provide a speed of 12 knots an hour to Arihant.
“The land-based PWR and the submarine version are on a 1:1 scale. This shore-based reactor has been running smoothly for the past three years,” said A. Moorthi, Scientific Officer, BARC.
For Basu, the D-day was September 22, 2006, when the shore-based PWR started operating. “All aspects of the project were done for the first time by us. We operate this reactor to generate data to be used for the sea-going version. We are doing a lot of research and development [R&D] that will go into future PWRs,” he said.
Banerjee explained the several challenges the designers faced in developing a reactor for submarine application. It was a different ballgame altogether to build a nuclear-powered pack for a submarine than building one on the shore. The first and foremost was that it should be compact enough to be packed into the cramped space inside the boat. Its weight should be minimal. Another requirement was that the power in the reactor in a submarine should rise fast – from 25 per cent to 100 per cent within a few minutes. “It is this attribute that gives the submarine its capability of attaining full speed from its cruising speed within a short time,” he said.
A submarine is a moving platform. It is submerged in water too. It undergoes pitching and rolling and other motions. The boat also faces the danger of being ripped apart from depth-charges. “Against these odds, we have designed and developed this reactor. It is a major achievement,” said Banerjee. The PWR in Arihant is designed for fast manoeuvres and a rapid speed pick-up.
There are novelties not only in its design but in its manufacturing. The steam generator, which produce super-heated steam to drive the turbine, is a novelty in itself. There are also novelties in the design and manufacture of heat exchangers, control rod mechanisms, pressurisers and so on.
Safety was the foremost consideration in building this PWR because a submarine operated in an isolated condition, without having any support from outside, said Banerjee. The vessel is designed in such a manner that it releases no radioactivity into the surroundings in the submerged condition.
Asked whether the Russians helped in designing and building the PWR, Kakodkar, Banerjee and Basu were emphatic that BARC developed it on its own. Banerjee said: “The Russians were consultants. The consultancy was done for the whole submarine, not for the power part alone.” Basu asserted, “Everything is totally indigenous [in this PWR]…. We developed it. It is our own reactor. We did not take it from anybody else.”
M.R. Srinivasan, former AEC Chairman, was also emphatic that the DAE developed the reactor on its own. While building the reactor “was always a part of the DAE’s activity”, the Navy’s role was to design and build the submarine, he said. So it was a joint DAE-Navy project. Srinivasan said, “The naval personnel had some assistance from Russia in designing the submarine, but the reactor is a totally Indian effort. The reactor, its components including the pressure vessels, and its fuel were made in India by Indian industry.”
The ATV programme has a chequered history. According to Srinivasan, the idea of building a nuclear-powered submarine took shape about 25 years ago. If India’s nuclear weapons had to survive a first strike, they should either be kept in silos or deployed in submarines. Since India had accepted the principle of “no first use”, that is, it will not use nuclear weapons first, it decided that its nuclear weapons should be made secure not only in land-bases but in submarines.
The decision that the DAE should build the propulsion for a nuclear-powered submarine was taken during Indira Gandhi’s time and it was followed up during Rajiv Gandhi’s prime ministership. While the earlier view was to use plutonium as fuel for the nuclear propulsion, it was later decided that India should use enriched uranium, produced at the Rare Materials Plant, to fuel the reactor.
Srinivasan called the launching of Arihant “a creditable achievement”. “It took time, but a lot of technologies had to be developed in the country. The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and the Indian industry have done a very good job,” he said.
While Larsen & Toubro did the tough job of building the hull, there were contributions from Walchandnagar Industries Limited and others.
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Indian Navy Entertains Guests On Board INS Airavat | Local News
Bandar Seri Begawan - The Indian Navy, currently in the Sultanate on a four-day goodwill visit which coincides with the 2009 Bridex, held a reception Monday night on board the INS Airavat.
Both INS Airavat and INS Khukri arrived in the country on August 9 and will leave today.
During the reception, various dance and musical performances entertained the crowd on board the fifth indigenously built Landing Ship Tank (Large) also known as LST (L) of the Indian Navy.
Attending the event representing the Commander of the Royal Brunei Armed Forces was Colonel (L) Haji Abdul Halim bin Haji Mohd Hanifah, the Commander of the Royal Brunei Navy.
Invited guests at the event were the High Commissioner of India, Mr RV Warjri, Commander Ashutosh Ridhorkar, Captain of INS Khukri; Commander Manish Sharma, Captain of INS Airavat and Colonel PK Siwach, the Defence Advisor of India and other family members.
Bandar Seri Begawan - The Indian Navy, currently in the Sultanate on a four-day goodwill visit which coincides with the 2009 Bridex, held a reception Monday night on board the INS Airavat.
Both INS Airavat and INS Khukri arrived in the country on August 9 and will leave today.
During the reception, various dance and musical performances entertained the crowd on board the fifth indigenously built Landing Ship Tank (Large) also known as LST (L) of the Indian Navy.
Attending the event representing the Commander of the Royal Brunei Armed Forces was Colonel (L) Haji Abdul Halim bin Haji Mohd Hanifah, the Commander of the Royal Brunei Navy.
Invited guests at the event were the High Commissioner of India, Mr RV Warjri, Commander Ashutosh Ridhorkar, Captain of INS Khukri; Commander Manish Sharma, Captain of INS Airavat and Colonel PK Siwach, the Defence Advisor of India and other family members.
LETHALFORCE
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i have seen calculations that arihant could possibly be 12000 ton displacement anybody have their own calculations??
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I don't think this is right (may be you can post links to basis of that calculation). It is difficult to calculate surface tonnage displacement without knowing the design, aerodynamic properties and weight of the Sub.
LETHALFORCE
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MOD EDIT: LF saar the source of information is mentioned in post 487
K-15 is 10.5 m long and with its container it has to be 11m long. Which means that the double hull has to be atleast 12m high to fit in the K-15. The sail/conning tower cannot be just 3 meter high, it seems atleast 6m high to me. Hence the 15 height may be just for the highest portion of the sub to fit in K-X at the later date.
K-15 is 10.5 m long and with its container it has to be 11m long. Which means that the double hull has to be atleast 12m high to fit in the K-15. The sail/conning tower cannot be just 3 meter high, it seems atleast 6m high to me. Hence the 15 height may be just for the highest portion of the sub to fit in K-X at the later date.
LETHALFORCE
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Indian defense establisment likes to keep everyone confused and downplay major systems or programs.
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India’s nuclear sub doesn’t have working reactor yet
Bangalore, Aug 13 (IANS) India’s nuclear submarine INS Arihant, launched on July 26, does not have a “working nuclear reactor” yet, says a nuclear scientist familiar with the project almost since its start.
“If any of you are under the impression that it made contact with water with an actual reactor fitted inside its hull you are mistaken,” the scientist told IANS.
The scientist echoes a report in Defence Professionals Daily, a German online publication, which says Arihant “currently is little more than a floating hull” without nuclear propulsion or weapons systems. The scientist, who did not want to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media, was clarifying media reports implying that Arihant is propelled by nuclear power and that India has become the sixth nation to operate nuclear subs.
“I think the media did not correctly report what was told to them by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), or the officials deliberately did not want to be explicit beyond a point,” he said.
The reports had said that Arihant is fitted with a nuclear power plant that is a replica of the secretly built 80-MW reactor at Kalpakkam near Chennai that was shown to the media Aug 2.
Building this land-based power plant — for demonstration and training the naval personnel — is no doubt a creditable achievement of BARC considering that “making the fuel tubes were a real challenge”, the source said.
Besides, he said, it has proved India’s ability to produce enriched uranium necessary for designing small enough reactors that can fit inside the submarine.
The higher the enrichment, the smaller the size of the reactor and, according to the source, the Indian design uses 15 to 20 percent enrichment. The commercial Tarapur nuclear power plant, on the other hand, uses about three percent enriched imported uranium.
“However, to say a duplicate of this land-based reactor is already inside Arihant and working is not correct,” he said. He pointed out that the official statement that Arihant’s reactor will take at least a year to go critical is another way of saying there is no reactor core right now inside the hull since making a reactor critical only takes days, not months.
The scientist said several steps are involved after achieving criticality and the reactor must be fully tested before it is sent to the sea. Integrating the ballistic or cruise missiles will take time and a few more years are needed to prove the platform and its systems, first in harbour, then at sea and lastly, under water, at increasing depths.
“Therefore, announcement of India’s entry into the nuclear submarine club with a half-baked product without the nuclear reactor — let alone the weapons systems — is perhaps premature,” the scientist said.
“After all the project had remained under wraps for over 20 years and another few years would not have made a difference.”
In contrast, although India was the fifth country to set up a nuclear reprocessing plant in 1964 even before Germany and China, the late Homi Bhabha, father of Indian atomic energy programme, announced the achievement only after it was commissioned and started to produce plutonium, he pointed out.
Nataraja Sarma, former BARC physicist and co-author of “Nuclear Power in India: A Critical History”, says it makes safety sense to first check out the seaworthiness of the basic submarine without the reactor core and then assemble the reactor.
“Once big components like reactor vessel, heat exchangers and the lead shielding (for protecting crew from radiation) are transferred to the submarine before closing its shell, the remaining smaller components including the fuel assembly can be introduced later to complete the construction,” he said.
Arihant is far from reaching operational status but the coconut breaking that released it from the Visakhapatnam dry dock was nevertheless an important day for India, the scientists say.
“What is significant about the launch is that now India has publicly acknowledged its quest to acquire a nuclear submarine and has shown it has the ability to design and build such a platform,” Uday Bhaskar, a former naval commander and now head of the National Maritime Foundation, is quoted as saying in the journal.
Bangalore, Aug 13 (IANS) India’s nuclear submarine INS Arihant, launched on July 26, does not have a “working nuclear reactor” yet, says a nuclear scientist familiar with the project almost since its start.
“If any of you are under the impression that it made contact with water with an actual reactor fitted inside its hull you are mistaken,” the scientist told IANS.
The scientist echoes a report in Defence Professionals Daily, a German online publication, which says Arihant “currently is little more than a floating hull” without nuclear propulsion or weapons systems. The scientist, who did not want to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media, was clarifying media reports implying that Arihant is propelled by nuclear power and that India has become the sixth nation to operate nuclear subs.
“I think the media did not correctly report what was told to them by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), or the officials deliberately did not want to be explicit beyond a point,” he said.
The reports had said that Arihant is fitted with a nuclear power plant that is a replica of the secretly built 80-MW reactor at Kalpakkam near Chennai that was shown to the media Aug 2.
Building this land-based power plant — for demonstration and training the naval personnel — is no doubt a creditable achievement of BARC considering that “making the fuel tubes were a real challenge”, the source said.
Besides, he said, it has proved India’s ability to produce enriched uranium necessary for designing small enough reactors that can fit inside the submarine.
The higher the enrichment, the smaller the size of the reactor and, according to the source, the Indian design uses 15 to 20 percent enrichment. The commercial Tarapur nuclear power plant, on the other hand, uses about three percent enriched imported uranium.
“However, to say a duplicate of this land-based reactor is already inside Arihant and working is not correct,” he said. He pointed out that the official statement that Arihant’s reactor will take at least a year to go critical is another way of saying there is no reactor core right now inside the hull since making a reactor critical only takes days, not months.
The scientist said several steps are involved after achieving criticality and the reactor must be fully tested before it is sent to the sea. Integrating the ballistic or cruise missiles will take time and a few more years are needed to prove the platform and its systems, first in harbour, then at sea and lastly, under water, at increasing depths.
“Therefore, announcement of India’s entry into the nuclear submarine club with a half-baked product without the nuclear reactor — let alone the weapons systems — is perhaps premature,” the scientist said.
“After all the project had remained under wraps for over 20 years and another few years would not have made a difference.”
In contrast, although India was the fifth country to set up a nuclear reprocessing plant in 1964 even before Germany and China, the late Homi Bhabha, father of Indian atomic energy programme, announced the achievement only after it was commissioned and started to produce plutonium, he pointed out.
Nataraja Sarma, former BARC physicist and co-author of “Nuclear Power in India: A Critical History”, says it makes safety sense to first check out the seaworthiness of the basic submarine without the reactor core and then assemble the reactor.
“Once big components like reactor vessel, heat exchangers and the lead shielding (for protecting crew from radiation) are transferred to the submarine before closing its shell, the remaining smaller components including the fuel assembly can be introduced later to complete the construction,” he said.
Arihant is far from reaching operational status but the coconut breaking that released it from the Visakhapatnam dry dock was nevertheless an important day for India, the scientists say.
“What is significant about the launch is that now India has publicly acknowledged its quest to acquire a nuclear submarine and has shown it has the ability to design and build such a platform,” Uday Bhaskar, a former naval commander and now head of the National Maritime Foundation, is quoted as saying in the journal.
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15 to 20 percent enrichment Uranium I doubt, anyways reactor not going critical inside the sub have some logic behind and should not be a big deal to make it get going, the scientist is right to state that certain critical components and systems need to be tested before taking a forward leap, otherwise it is a loss of rare materials.
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Nuclear propulsion vessels itself are not permitted to dock every where and Honorable PM addressing nearby a prototype reactor isn't feasible either, I thought that particular boomer was a mock up but a real prototype without a core is also possible, A full fledged sub is the least probability.
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