MRS SITHARAMAN LAUNCHED INDIA’S SECOND NUCLEAR SUBMARINE AT SBC VISHAKAPATNAM AND NAVY’S SUBMARINE ARM CELEBRATED ITS GOLDEN JUBLIEE

Ranjit B Rai

Indian Navy’s submarine arm  celebrated 50 years  of Golden service to the nation  on 8^th December,  commemorating the  date in  1967 when  India’s first Foxtrot  class submarine  INS  Kalvari, was commissioned at Vladivostok. Concurrently,   Navy’s  first of six modern Scorpene class  silent killer submarines (SSK)   to be named   INS Kalvari, was handed over to  the Navy by the builders Mazagon Docks at Mumbai with French SM-39 under water launched missiles, advanced Subtics  computer control,   and fitted with German SUT-B (interim)  torpedoes.  The crew is awaiting  commissioning,   possibly by the Prime Minister,  but a Submarine Day commissioning was missed.

As per  submariners’  motto, ‘Run Deep, Run Silent’,  Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO) Project Akakshanka (Hope) earlier called ATV,   toasted  the  launching of India’s second  nuclear SSBN submarine from  its flooded dock  by Defence Minister Mrs Nirmala  Sitharaman in a low key  event  at the classified  Shipbuilding Building Centre (SBC)  at Vishakapatnam. Media named her Arighat (Blessed Attacker). Earlier media had called her  Aridhaman.  She  is larger than the first 6.000 ton INS Arihant with an extra missile plug and has more Indian content by Indian companies and will be armed with  (DRDO) eight  K-4 (Kalam) nuclear tipped ballistic missiles with a longer  range of 2,500 km, with  radar and GPS homing, and will carry torpedoes.  She will now complete habour trials and  test fire her scaled up from 83MW reactor, before proceeding for sea trials. Arihant’s reactor was   fired for criticality by BARC’s Dr Usha Paul, later decorated for her work in designing the reactor’s parameters and a  feature called SCRAM for safe   shutdown of the  nuclear reactor in emergency.   

 Arighat’s hull was assembled by  Larsen &Toubro Ltd (L&T) in a  public private partnership (PPP) with DRDO in a dry dock in a large  shed at  the SBC which stands  leased to    L&T, which  has its Heavy Engineering Unit at Hazira, and a shipyard at Tuttalpulli near Ennore. The submarine has been  built in modular blocks with the  integrated hull outfitting and painting (IHOP) technique. The   completed blocks are transported with heavy cranes and joined by  qualified welders with  x-ray checks for water tight integrity under Russian  consultancy, as submarines dive deep and have to withstand  heavy pressures. L&T executed the work  under Naval  Director Generals Project Akakshanka  which has a testing facility called DMDE at Hyderabad for quality control. A  board in Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and NSAs  with the Strategic Force Commander (SFC)   monitor  the progress.   Funding is not disclosed.

 The submarine’  enriched uranium nuclear reactor is supplied by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) with parts supplied by industries like Walachandnagar Industries and Godrej and SMEs. The turbines and heat exchanger system is supplied by Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL).   The slender command console is lowered through the conning tower and  is supplied by  a  Tata Advanced Systems -BAE collaboration. Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) and many  Indian industries and ECIL are involved in supplying  the communications and electronic equipment,  heavy duty pumps and compressors that fill tanks for diving and empty tanks for surfacing.

The classified ATV renamed  Akakshanka  was set up in the mid 1980s by Dr Raja Ramana Chairman Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and Dr V S Arunachalam Secretary DRDO, with funding from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and DAE. Navy provided manpower, space in Naval Dockyard Vishakapatnam and helped design a shore submarine (S1) with a trial  nuclear reactor for training set up at Kalpakam.  ATV has been piloted by successive  Vice Admirals,  Mihir Roy, Bharat Bhushan, Ravi Ganesh, Promod Bhasin who cut the steel, DSP Verma who launched Arihant in 2009,   and currently Dinesh Prabhakar who oversaw  commissioning of Arihant  (S2)  and is supervising Arighat  (S3).

A new submarine base with a BARC center is coming up at Rombilli South of Vishakapatnam to relieve the  congested port. The next generation smaller six 5,000 ton SSN attack submarines  sanctioned by Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) are being   designed jointly with Russia’s Rubin they call Beluga in a   centre in Gurugaon.  CNS Admiral Sunil Lanba  only admitted, “ Work has begun and the project is classified”, during Navy week’s  media briefing.

Submarines are nations’ sword arms  in war, and nuclear submarines are the vehicles of stealth for nuclear deterrence from the seas. India’s draft nuclear doctrine mandates a triad, with No First Use (NFU). The Navy’s Arihant  had  joined the Triad with Army and Air Force   in 2016, and Arighat will be a more potent addition, as India faces the prospect of having to deter two nuclear-armed neighbours, China and Pakistan.  

Submariners as a  special lot, was made famous by  Rudyard Kipling’s  prophetic lines in 1916, “The Submarine has created its own type of Officer and Man with language and traditions apart from the rest of the Service, and yet at heart unchangingly of the service”. In this context the genesis of this Make in India project called Akakshanka is more significant than the nation knows.

Cmde (retd) Ranjit B Rai is fomer DNI/DNO and  author of Future Modern Navy-2018.