India has two ballistic missiles K4 and K15. (File Photo)
The Indian Navy on Wednesday successfully test-fired the K-4 ballistic missile. The testing was done from the nuclear submarine Arighat. Arighat was launched in 2017. Its upgraded version will be operational soon.
Arighat is an upgraded version of INS Arihant. It was built at the Indian Navy's Shipbuilding Center (SBC) in Visakhapatnam. As compared to Arihant, Arighach will be equipped with K-4 missile with a range of 3500 km. The weight of this submarine is 6 thousand tons (60 thousand quintals).
India has prepared 3 submarines equipped with nuclear missiles
The Indian Navy has so far developed 3 nuclear submarines. One of them Arihant is operational, another is to be found Arighaal and the third is undergoing testing on S3. These submarines can attack enemy countries with nuclear missiles. For the first time in 2009, INS Arihant was symbolically launched by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's wife on the occasion of Kargil Victory Day. After this it was inducted into the fleet of Navy in 2016. Indian Navy has launched two more submarines in next 5 years.
Before launching it in 2009, India kept the submarine a secret from the world. In 1990, the Government of India launched the ATV i.e. Advanced Technology Vessel programme. It was under him that the construction of this submarine started.
There are only 6 nuclear triad countries in the world including India
INS Arighat is capable of conducting underwater missile attack similar to what Arihant was test-fired on 14 October 2022. Subsequently the K-15 SLBM from Arihant was successfully test-fired. With this, India has become the sixth nuclear triad country in the world apart from America, Russia, Britain, France and China.
Now understand in simple language what is nuclear triad?
We understand this from the example of India and Pakistan. Suppose India and Pakistan start preparing for war over Kashmir.
Nuclear weapons aside, India is far ahead of Pakistan in terms of military might. That means if there is a war, India's victory is certain.
In such a situation, Pakistan starts planning a nuclear attack on India. Now the question is what will Pakistan think first?
The answer is that Pakistan's biggest concern in such a situation would be that if it launches a nuclear attack, India will also use nuclear weapons in response. In this way only Pakistan will be destroyed.
In such a situation, Pakistan will plan to attack India with so many nuclear bombs that India's soil will be completely destroyed and it will not be in a position to retaliate against Pakistan.
Here, India is preparing to maintain a nuclear strike capability against the enemy in response to any such nuclear attack. There are two ways to do this.
- First method: Deploying nuclear-tipped missiles and fighter planes in locations that could respond to Pakistan in the event of a nuclear attack. Such locations include high mountainous areas, remote islands like Andaman and Nicobar, and underground bases to hide and fire missiles.
- Another way: A sea-based nuclear missile attack capability from warships and submarines is to be developed, along with the ability to drop nuclear bombs from land-launched missiles and aircraft. This focuses on nuclear fueled submarines, as warships can be detected and sunk, but deep sea diving submarines are not easy to detect.
Thus, it is clear that the ability to launch nuclear weapons by missiles from the ground, by fighter planes from the sky and by submarines from the sea is called the nuclear triad.
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Successful testing of indigenous hypersonic missile: Range over 1500 km, 5 times speed of sound
The Defense Research Development Organization (DRDO) successfully test-fired a long-range hypersonic missile on 16 November. While sharing its video, DRDO said the missile was launched from a glide vehicle from the APJ Abdul Kalam Azad Island off Odisha coast.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
