Monday, July 27, 2009

Indian Arihant class submarine

The Arihant class submarine (Sanskrit meaning "Killer of Enemies"), are nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines of the Indian Navy. The lead vessel of the class, INS Arihant, was launched on July 26, 2009. The Arihant Class of submarines may carry the Sagarika submarine-launched ballisitic missile (SLBM) or the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile. The Arihant class vessels were designed as a part of the Advanced Technology Vessel project, India's US$2.9 billion project to design and build nuclear-powered submarines. The Arihant class is India's first indigenously designed and built submarine. 3 submarines of the class are expected to be in commission with the Indian Navy by 2015. The Arihant class may possibly be armed with the 750 km Sagarika, submarine-launched ballistic missile and Agni-III (missile), an SLBM under development.

Development

The Arihant class submarines were designed and constructed as a part of the Indian Navy's Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project. The ATV project started with the intent to design nuclear-powered fast attack submarines, though over time the project was re-aligned towards the design of a ballistic missile submarine in order to complete India's nuclear triad. The vessels are powered by an 80 MW pressurized water reactor (PWR) with enriched uranium fuel. The initial design of the miniaturized naval-version of the reactor developed by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) had technical challenges, after which Russian help was sought to resolve the design glitches. The final production version of the reactor was built at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) at Kalpakkam. The hulls for this class are built by L&T's Hazira shipbuilding facility. Tata Power built the control systems for the submarine. The systems for the steam turbine integrated with the PWR were supplied by Walchandnagar Industries. Reports have suggested that the hulls for two more vessels were completed at the L&T facility at Hazira and will be transported to Visakhapatnam when INS Arihant exits the dry dock.

More Details

The Arihant class hull features twin flank-array sonars, as well as a stern-mounted distinctive 'bulb' on top of the rudder housing a retractable, ultra-low frequency thin-line towed active/passive sonar array built by state-owned Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL). The class also features a broadband expendable anti-torpedo countermeasures developed by RAFAEL of Israel, a single universal vertical launcher capable of launching supersonic multi-role BrahMos cruise missiles and the Sagarika, SLBM.

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