Week 22-29th Feb,2016
• India is conducting the final trials of its first nuclear-armed submarine, which would make it the sixth country in the world to possess a vessel capable of launching nuclear warheads from underwater.
• When deployed, the submarine will complete India’s nuclear triad — allowing it to launch atomic weapons from land, sea and air.
What is the INS Arihant?
• The 6,000-ton, 110-metre-long INS Arihant (the Sanskrit name meaning “Slayer of Enemies”) has been developed over the last three decades under a secret government program.
• First sanctioned in 1970, the project was approved in 1984 and work began in 1998.
• The nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine can be armed with 12 Short Range K-15 missiles or four K-4 ballistic missiles.
What does this mean for the world?
• India’s deployment of a nuclear-armed submarine could put the nation into a naval arms race with regional powers, potentially prompting China to assist its nuclear-armed allies Pakistan and North Korea in developing similar technologies, according to Bloomberg.
• Both India and China subscribe to a No First-Use policy on nuclear weapons. They regard nuclear-armed submarines as a deterrence aimed at preventing the outbreak of war.
• The Arihant is harder to detect than India’s nuclear weapons platforms on land and in the air, giving it a “second-strike” capability. This would allow India to retaliate against an enemy who managed to destroy the rest of its nuclear arsenal in a first-strike.
• However, India and China’s nuclear submarines are currently loud and easily detected, making them an unlikely second-strike asset, according to the Lowry Institute for International Policy in its report into nuclear-armed submarines.
• The Lowry report says: “There will likely be a long phase of initial instability as China and India start deploying nuclear missiles on submarines.
“Chinese and Indian nuclear-armed submarines – along with possible Pakistani and North Korean units – may remain detectable by adversaries, making their activities unpredictable in times of crisis. Moreover, these supposedly stabilizing new forces may worsen wider maritime tensions.”
Which other countries have nuclear-armed submarines?
• The UK, USA, France, Russia and China already have nuclear-armed submarines.
• Only the USA and Russia are considered are considered fully-fledged nuclear triad powers.
• The renewal of Britain’s Trident nuclear-submarines has sparked a fierce debate within the Labour party.
• Although Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn favours unilateral disarmament, many other members of his shadow cabinet are outspoken advocates. The government says the cost of replacing Trident will come to £31 billion, but some experts say the real cost will exceed £100 billion.