Indian SSBN launches SLBM
 

Times of India:

EXPRESS EXCLUSIVE: Maiden Test of Undersea K-4 Missile From Arihant Submarine - The New Indian Express

"BALASORE: Notwithstanding international pressures India has secretly conducted the maiden test of its nuclear capable undersea ballistic missile, code named K-4, from homegrown submarine INS Arihant at an undisclosed location in the Bay of Bengal.

A reliable source on Friday told ‘The New Indian Express’ that the test conducted on March 31 nearly 45 nautical miles away from Vishakhapatnam coast in Andhra Pradesh was highly successful. The indigenously developed weapon with a dummy payload was reportedly launched from the submarine in full operational configuration.

The trial was carried out with the support of the personnel of Strategic Forces Command (SFC) while the DRDO provided all logistics. The missile was fired from 20-meter deep and it pierced into the sky after breaking the water surface. INS Arihant had first successfully fired a prototype of K-15 (B-05) missile in November last year.

The K-4 missile was fired from onboard silos of the ship submersible ballistic, nuclear (SSBN) submarine demonstrating the capability of the newly built underwater warship to fire long range nuclear capable missiles and the killing efficiency of the most advanced state-of-the-art weapon system.

“Having an operational range of nearly 3,500 km, the missile was fired towards north for a shorter range. It covered more than 700 km before zeroing on the target with high accuracy reaching close to zero circular error probability (CEP),” informed the source.

DRDO officials however refused to speak on the mission. While the officials associated with K-4 mission and Arihant project were tight-lipped, Director General of DRDO Selvin Christopher did not respond calls from this paper.

K4 SLBM:

Intermediate Range SLBM
Operational Range – 3,500 km
Length – 12 meter
Width – 1.3 meter
Weight – 17 tonne
Warhead – 2,000 kg
Engine – Solid furled
Accuracy – Near zero CEP

"Reports indicated the K-4 missile with the features of boost-glide flight profiles is designed to defeat any anti-ballistic missile systems. Equipped with the satellite updates to modify accumulated errors from its inertial navigation system, the weapon system is claimed to be quite dangerous and one of its kind in the world.

The 111-metre-long INS Arihant has four vertical launch tubes, which are capable of carrying 6 torpedoes of 533 mm and 12 B-05 (K-15) missiles or 4 K-4 missiles. Powered by an 85 MW capacity nuclear reactor with enriched uranium fuel, this submarine can achieve surface speeds of 12 knots to 15 knots, and submerged speeds of up to 24 knots, carrying a crew of 95.

Apart from Arihant, the K-4 will also arm another Arihant class submarine INS Aridhaman which is currently under construction along with two others. These submarines will have eight launch tubes each."

I love the old fashioned, understated way that the Indian press still reports,

So the 'solid furled' engine is actually a sail, then?

To make it a truly Indian weapon, they should fill the warhead with chilli powder, litter and diarrhoea.

Then, anyone on the receiving end would have no doubt where it came from.
:ok::E:ok:

Nice to see that India has managed to erradicate endemic poverty, disease, malnutrition and homelessness, and is now able to afford such projects.

well.... apart from maybe Israel all the other Npowers have pockets of "endemic poverty, disease, malnutrition and homelessness"

Go and look round Applachia or Detroit or the E End of London or a Banlieu near Paris

Guess we are giving them far too much Foreign Aid money

Zetec - you are not wrong - why foreign aid to a country with its own space programme?

Arguably, the easy bit is the one that goes whoosh skywards. The clever bits are the bus and the re-entry bodies.

Kinda hard to do that when you're busy learning Chinese for "At Once Sir!"

"Arguably, the easy bit is the one that goes whoosh skywards. The clever bits are the bus and the re-entry bodies."

"Gather round while I sing you of Wernher von Braun,
A man whose allegiance
Is ruled by expedience.
Call him a Nazi, he won't even frown.
"ha, Nazi sch-mazi," says Wernher von Braun.


Don't say that he's hypocritical,
Say rather that he's apolitical.


"once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down?
That's not my department," says Wernher von Braun.

I walked through the streets of Manchester last weekend, and saw many homeless people. This is while we are in the process of acquiring the P8.

Nice to see you adopting a left wing stance on this issue though :ok:

Good that you keep your crayons sharpened and at high readiness Heathrow Harry. Incidentally, have you heard anything of hanoijane recently?

Wernher von Braun, who aimed for the stars, but sometimes hit London...

Prof. Lehrer again

"tell the widows & orphans of old London Town that they owe their large pensions to Werhner von Braun"

What's with all the vitriol directed at Wernher? There were LOTS of German scientists, industrialists, bankers, and others who made Adolf's adventure in Europe (not to mention the countless deaths in the UK) possible.

Yeah, nobody brought up Bayer and BMW.

Back to India.....

Nor Mercedes, nor Daimler, nor Porsche, nor ..............

As for India's SLBM, that's quite a feat. Hopefully this will give pause to any thoughts of military adventures from their large neighbor to the northeast.

Who already have a couple of SSBN's in service..................

That's the point of SSBNs. They currently provide the best/most survivable deterrence relative to any other system. Of course this assumes a truly quiet SSBN. I don't know the quieting specifics of either the Chinese or Indian SSBNs