INS Arighaat: The submarine lends more power to the MAD scenario

In nuclear warfare, SSBNs are a critical part of a country's strike capabilities. The acronym stands for 'Ship, Submersible, Ballistic, Nuclear' which is naval parlance for nuclear-propelled submarines with nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles, more commonly called ballistic missile submarine or fleet ballistic missile submarine.

Only six countries in the world have submarines which are nuclear powered as well as can launch nuclear weapons: the US, Russia, China, France, the UK and India. India's first SSBN, INS Arihant, became fully operational in 2018, while the second, NS Arighaat, was commissioned into the Indian Navy on Thursday in Visakhapatnam.

What is the nuclear triad?

The nuclear triad refers to the military capability of launching nuclear strikes from land, air and sea. India has two strong vectors in the triad while the third, the sea vector, is weak.

The land vector of India's nuclear triad comprises missiles Prithvi-II (350km), Agni-I (700km), Agni-2 (2,000km), Agni-3 (3,000km) and Agni-5 (over 5,000km). The air vector comprises Sukhoi-30MKI, Mirage-2,000, Jaguar and Rafale fighter jets that can deliver nuclear gravity bombs. The sea vector comprises two nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, INS Arihant and INS Arighaat.

INS Arighat will to a certain extent strengthen India’s weakest leg of the nuclear triad. The land and air vectors, with the Agni ballistic missiles and fighters with nuclear gravity bombs, are relatively more robust.

Arighaat and the MAD scenario
Nuclear power submarines which can launch nuclear weapons are key to a country's nuclear deterrence because they pose a credible second-strike threat, especially with India’s 'no-first use' nuclear policy. Since they are hard to detect and can operate at long distances and fast speed, they are a survivable deterrent of the nuclear triad as they can survive a surprise first strike and then hit back at the nuclear aggressor with a retaliatory strike. Thus they assure a Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) which sharpens a country's nuclear deterrence capability.

India's nuclear deterrence capability will bolster further with the third SSBN, the slightly larger 7,000-tonne INS Aridhaman with 3,500-km range K-4 missiles. It is likely to be commissioned next year, TOI has reported. The fourth SSBN, which will be able to carry more K-4 missiles, is also being constructed under the secretive Rs 90,000 crore advanced technology vessel (ATV) project launched decades ago. There is also the plan to eventually build 13,500-tonne SSBNs with much more powerful 190 MW reactors. Bigger SSBNs with longer-range missiles will give India’s deterrence posture greater credibility vis à vis China.

However, these four submarines are less than half the size of the SSBNs of countries like the US, China and Russia. China has six Jin-class SSBNs, with 10,000-km range JL-3 missiles, apart from six nuclear-powered attack submarines (called SSNs, meant for conventional warfare). The US, in turn, has 14 Ohio-class SSBNs and 53 SSNs.

China’s nuclear-powered submarines, nicknamed ‘Sharks’ by the PLA Navy, are becoming more stealthy and capable, a report by the US Naval War College revealed last year. The report claimed that China is on the verge of producing “world-class” nuclear submarines that can rival the Russian Akula-I class SSN in terms of propulsion, quieting, sensors and weapons.

China is developing its third-generation nuclear submarines, the Type 095 (Sui-class) SSN and the Type 096 (Tang-class) SSBN. the report said. The Sui-class is expected to be comparable to the Russian Akula-I class SSN. The Tang-class is expected to carry JL-3 submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) with a range of over 10,000 km, which would enable China to target any part of the US mainland from its coastal waters.

(With inputs from TOI)