INS Arihant carried out a successful launch of a Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM) on October 14, 2022.
Key points
- The missile was tested to a predetermined range and impacted the target area in the Bay of Bengal with very high accuracy.
- The successful user training launch of the SLBM by INS Arihant is significant to prove crew competency and validate the SSBN programme, a key element of India’s nuclear deterrence capability.
- A robust, survivable and assured retaliatory capability is in keeping with India’s policy to have ‘Credible Minimum Deterrence‘ that underpins its ‘No First Use’ commitment.
- The INS Arihant is India’s first indigenous nuclear submarine and the flagship of the Arihant-class of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines.
- It was launched in 2009.
- It is based on the Russian Akula-1 class submarine.
- The Arihant is a class of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines developed for the Indian Navy.
- It was commissioned in 2016 after a series of sea trials.
- Arihant is the first ballistic missile submarine to be built by a country that is not one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
