First Photo of India's first ever nuclear submarine: Arihant

Why is it so wrinkly? That doesn't look good at all.

reply to post by Martinez


Yea well that was corruption and mismanaged funds.. Bad for India. But not much to do with SSBNs.. well the corruption bit yes a bit, but it is much more controlled in defence projects. Procurement is a mess though..

Originally posted by orangetom1999
Daedalus3 and others,

I agree..this is India's first "branching out into this field of ICBM type boats. This is more of a prototype for upcoming developments. What works, doesnt work, needs improving and modification will be incorporated into the next generation of boats.

Very true, the only difference being India needs to hit the ground running on operating nuclear subs. )

While we still do so on our boomers...I am wonderinig why they use fairwater planes on the sail structure instead of some kind of retractable bow planes. Retractable bow planes seem to be the trend in boats of recent.
But then again ...most boats using such planes are attack boats and are built for more speed. This is not necessarily the case with a boomer...stealth is priority until they must launch.

Another item of curiosity. I hope the Indian Navy has progressed further than the Russians and do not use liquid fueled rockets in their boomers. Solid fuel is sufficiently peculear...but liquid fuel..in a confined space....what were the Russians thinking???

Will get back to you on that!

I am not familiar of the commercial side of Indian reactor capabilities. Do they even have a trained pool of fuelers/refuelers and the facilities for doing such radioactive/contamination work. Drydock facilities et al. It is rather involved and complicated work to do safely and dispose of the waste products. Also it takes some time to properly train and maintain qualified peoples to do this type of work...in addition to the expenses.
Also to train nuclear qualified peoples to do this work in shipyards or in the Navy itself.

They did operate one N-sub on lease from the Russians (then Soviets) between 1988 and 1990 calle INS Chakra. On top of that, they seem to have undergone extensive N-sub operational training in facilities built for (and probably entirely paid for by) Indian Navy personnel. Some eco watch agency caught the facility being set up in 2004-2005 IIRC.

Thanks for your esteemed comments OT. Just don't go too crazy with googlemaps hunting for NSub bases in India
Go look on the chinese N bases

reply to post by Daedalus3


Daedalus3,

Thank you sir for your reply.

Very true, the only difference being India needs to hit the ground running on operating nuclear
subs. )

Agree here with the concept of hitting the ground running...with certain reservations.

I am detecting from certain articles that there may be on the horizon some challanges to Indian Sovereignty and Access to the Indian Ocean and blue water capabilities in the future. This concept is very subdued and downplayed here in the news media but it can be detected if one is capable of reading between the lines.

I am often given to watching a little Atoll called Diego Garcia from Google Earth ..particularly when the photos or view is updated. I have worked on several of those types of roll on roll off ships you see in the deeper areas of the atoll and hence immediately recognized the set up.

Nonetheless..I believe in the future India will be challanged as to her ability to sail the seas in the Indian Ocean from little tell tale notes I pick up in the news and on the shortwave bands. Her role will become more critical and important in Blue Water operations in the near future.

Submarine operations are full of dangers...and even so too with diesel boats. Nuclear is just as dangerous and the added complication of a nuclear plant to boot. Caution is to be used here in spite of urgency.
Nuclear powered ships do not come inexpensively ..nor trained qualified crews. Nuclear qualified crews need be fluent in math, chemistry, physics et al. Thus separating them from most of the sailors out there. Standards need be much higher for these crews by the very nature of the work involved. The proceedures involved reflect this higher standard.
I was quite startled when working overtime on a nuclear cruiser, after working nuclear submarines for a few years, to see the difference in the caliber of crews..surface verses submarine. On a nucler submarine even the cook is of higher caliber than most surface ship cooks. And many of the submarine sailors are cross trained in other equipments to operate and fill in should casualties occur.

I believe I am saying that in spite of the urgency..India needs be careful with her assets and trained qualified peoples on these new boats are a definite asset.. not only for what they know and can do but also for what they can teach the next generations of sailors to come.

To the Indian Navy and her sailors I say.."Fair Winds."

Thanks for your post,
Orangetom

edit on 18-10-2010 by orangetom1999 because: (no reason given)