By Ankit Panda
India’s DRDO confirmed that its new SSBN and ICBMs are on schedule for 2015.
Last Friday, India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) said that that India’s first indigenously developed nuclear submarine, the INS Arihant, and the 5,000 km-range Agni-5 ballistic missile will be operational and ready for use in the armed forces in 2015. DRDO chief Avinash Chander confirmed that he was confident that the submarine and the missile would both be ready by next year at India’s biennial defense exposition Defexpo.
The Arihant is a 6,000 ton nuclear-power ballistic missile submarine and is the first of five planned ships in its class. It is powered by an 83 MW pressurized light-water reactor, which operates with enriched uranium fuel.Arihant’s inclusion in the Indian Navy will solidify India’s bid to field a credible nuclear triad. The Arihant will be equipped with the12 nuclear-tipped variants of the K-15 underwater ballistic missile, which was tested in January 2013. The K-15 (also known as the BO-5) has a range of around 750 km.
The Agni-V is a three-stage, solid fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) with a range of 5,500-5,800 km. According to Livemint, the Agni-V is the most advanced iteration of the Agni series of ICBMs with “new technologies incorporated with it in terms of navigation and guidance, warhead and engine.”
Read the full story at The Diplomat