Interesting article on the future of submarine programs in India..
On February 18, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) formally cleared India’s single-largest defence project: a joint Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)-Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC)-Navy project to build six nuclear-powered attack submarines or SSNs for roughly $12 billion (Rs.74,400 crore). This mammoth ‘Make in India’ project, nearly the size of the budget allotted this year to the three services to buy hardware ($15 billion), was not an isolated policy decision.
…
THE ATTACK SUBMARINE
The Indian Navy’s Maritime Capability Perspective Plan unveiled in 2005 envisages a 160-ship navy with 90 capital ships such as frigates and destroyers. Besides seven P17A frigates for $7 billion (Rs.45,000 crore), the government has cleared projects for five fleet support ships, approved a third aircraft carrier and four landing platform dock ships that will project power in the Indian Ocean. Yet, it will be the six SSNs that will form the lynchpin of India’s response to the Chinese navy.
The navy envisaged multiple roles for a future nuclear-powered attack submarine fleet: two SSNs each to escort each of the three Carrier Battle Groups, protect the “bastion areas”, or bases of the Arihant-class SSBNs, and hunt enemy submarines in the Indian Ocean Region. In the event of a Chinese offensive in the Himalayas, the SSNs will form the backbone of a future Indian riposte. They will run interdiction missions at vital choke points and conduct operations in enemy waters.
All of these tasks are presently carried out by a solitary INS Chakra, which is to be supplemented by a second SSN, possibly the Kashalot to be leased from Russia for $2.7 billion in 2018. “SSN’s utility in denial operations, raising the cost of hostile military intervention and shadowing high-value units such as carrier groups and SSBNs, is unparalleled,” says Shankar.
The SSN project comes at a time when India’s three-decade-old nuclear submarine project is finally coming up to speed. The INS Arihant or the S2, the first of a class of four 6,000-tonne ballistic missile submarines, recently began her sea trials in Visakhapatnam.
The submarine’s performance in surface trials has enthused naval officials to plan for its commissioning in December this year. The INS Arihant cost around Rs.6,000 crore to build and can carry either 12 short-range B0-5 missiles or four K4 nucleartipped ballistic missiles with a range of 3,500 km. The DRDO has set up an SSN cell headed by a retired vice admiral in its nuclear submarine building hub, the Ship Building Centre (SBC) in Visakhapatnam. The navy’s Delhibased Submarine Design Group is now working to complete a design for these undersea vessels in the next two years. The shipyard to build the vessels is yet to be decided but officials say this programme will run parallel to the seven strategic submarines of the Advanced Technology Vessel Project (ATV).
…
The six SSNs will be a spin-off from a project that is building four Arihant class SSBNs or ballistic missile-firing nuclear submarines. The downstream effect of this Make in India project will be tremendous. One private sector official says the $12-billion project will have a force multiplier effect of $40 billion on the Indian economy, generating over a million skilled jobs and sustaining the ecosystem that has grown around the ATV project.
One admiral points out that while the SSN will be Arihant’s size, designing and building it will be far more challenging as both platforms have different tasks. An SSBN like the Arihant is a stealth underwater bomber ready to launch nuclear-tipped missiles at an adversary. Its reactor needs to deliver steady speeds as it prowls undetected.
An SSN, on the other hand, is like a fighter jet. It needs a high-performance nuclear reactor which delivers tremendous speed with rapid acceleration and deceleration. It needs a reactor that can perform multiple tasks such as pursuing enemy warships and striking land targets. Opinion seems to be divided regarding the type of reactor that will power the SSN.
BARC wants the Arihant’s 83 MW reactor to lead the way. “It’s better to build on a proven design. The SSN should have a compact version of the same reactor,” says Anil Anand, former head of the BARC reactor design team. A former admiral, also part of the project, differs and calls for a new 190 MW reactor such as the one on the Chakra to be designed.
..
the article carries an illustration of the possible design of the SSN, but obviously, its hypothetical
Sign In
