Posted On Friday, 31 December 2021 11:12
According to information published by News 18 on December 31, 2021, India has reportedly secretly launched its third Arihant class submarine, called S4, in Visakhapatnam.
Arihant-class submarine INS Arihant (Picture source: Flickr)
The Arihant-class (Sanskrit, for Slayer of Enemies) is a class of Indian nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines being built for the Indian Navy.
They were developed under the ₹90,000 Crores (US$12 billion) Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project to design and build nuclear-powered submarines. These vessels are classified as "strategic strike nuclear submarines" by India.
They will be the first nuclear submarines designed and built by India. The submarines are 111 m (364 ft) long with a beam of 11 m (36 ft), a draught of 15 m (49 ft), displacement of 6,000 tonnes (5,900 long tons; 6,600 short tons).
The complement is about 95, including officers and sailors. The boats are powered by a single seven-blade propeller powered by an 83 MW pressurized water reactor and can achieve a maximum speed of 12–15 knots (22–28 km/h) when surfaced and 24 knots (44 km/h) when submerged.
The submarines have four launch tubes in their hump and can carry up to twelve K-15 Sagarika missiles with one warhead each (with a range of 750 km or 470 mi) or four K-4 missiles (with a range of 3,500 km or 2,200 mi).