INS Arighat: While India’s Nuclear Submarine Deterrent Accelerates, Australia’s Remains Unformulated
India’s second nuclear-powered ballistic submarine (SSBN) is scheduled to be inducted into the Indian Navy later this year.
Editorial Staff
INS Arighat: While India’s Nuclear Submarine Deterrent Accelerates, Australia’s Remains Unformulated
While India’s plan to construct six nuclear-powered attack submarines is the result of decades-long perseverance in the face of ridicule and a lack of funding, Australia remains ideologically constrained. Background A recent report stated that India’s second nuclear-powered ballistic submarine (SSBN) is scheduled to be inducted into the Indian Navy later this year. The future INS Arighat will be India’s second SSBN, following the INS Arihant, which was launched in 2009 for sea trials and commissioned in 2016. Despite the extra-long testing period and some Keystone Cops-like misadventures – it was reported in 2018, for example, that the Arihant’s propulsion compartment was damaged by water which flooded in after a hatch at the rear was left open while moored and, in 2014, a worker was killed during pressure tests on the hull – the Indian Navy appears to have been sufficiently satisfied with its performance as to launch the Arighat, the second boat in the Arihant class, in 2017 and begin …
