Click to play videoNew Delhi: Eleven years after India stunned the world by coming out of the nuclear closet, it’s planning another leap that will be the next big milestone in its emergence as a credible nuclear weapons power.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will launch India's first nuclear-powered submarine, which is being built to fire nuclear-armed ballistic missiles.
Named INS Arihant (destroyer of enemies), the submarine will complete India's triad of nuclear weapons which can be fired from land, air and under the sea
The 5,000-ton vessel will be armed with 12 nuclear-armed K-15 ballistic missiles which have a 700 km range.
The K-15s will later be replaced by 3,500 km-range K-X missiles.
Its 80-MW nuclear reactor will ensure that it can stay submerged for as long as it takes.
With a speed of 22 knots, it'll be much faster than conventional submarines, and for a ballistic missile-firing sub, it is diminutive: its 104-metre length and 10-metre width earning it the title of the baby boomer.
The Arihant has taken 11 years to build and is expected to be operational by 2011, by which time India would have trained its crews on a leased Akula class Russian submarine.
India hopes to have a fleet of 10 nuclear submarines in 20 years.
It's a modest start. China, in comparison, already has 10, giving it growing reach in the Indian Ocean, and the US as many as 74.
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