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India Joining Another Club
Norman Polmar | April 04, 2007
India will soon launch its first nuclear-propelled submarine, which will make it the sixth nation to have constructed such a craft. Beginning with the USS Nautilus, completed in 1955, nuclear submarines have been constructed by the United States, Soviet Union/Russia, Britain, France, and China.

Ironically, India has previously operated a nuclear submarine. The Soviet Union loaned a Project 670 (NATO code name Charlie) cruise missile submarine, the K-43, to India from January 1988 to January 1991.  That craft provided experience on such submarines to some 150 Indian naval personnel, but no procurement of nuclear submarines followed the return of the Chakra to the Soviet Union.

The reactor plant for the submarine was developed -- with Russian assistance -- at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research at Kalpakkam. The development of a nuclear reactor plant in India that would be suitable for a submarine dates to the 1970s. According to several sources, the Indian shipyard at Vishakapatnam will launch the nuclear submarine, labeled as an “Advanced Technical Vessel,” later this year. Completion is estimated between 2010 and 2012.

Reportedly, India is planning on producing five nuclear submarines by about 2025, with some analysts believing that they will be armed with nuclear land-attack cruise missiles to provide a second-strike capability.

And, reports persist that India and Russia are negotiating for the lease with an option to buy for two Project  971 (Akula) nuclear-propelled attack submarines. Such negotiations have been carried out periodically since the demise of the USSR more than 15 years ago.

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CORRECTION:  The item Plans for an Underwater Express cited the University of Pennsylvania Applied Physics Laboratory as participating the program sponsored by the Defense Applied Research Agency. The participating institution is the Applied Research Laboratory at Pennsylvania State University. The PSU/ARL  has long been involved in research for advanced underwater weapons and related projects.

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Copyright 2009 Norman Polmar. All opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of Military.com.

  
About Norman Polmar

NORMAN POLMAR has been a consultant to several senior officials in the Navy and Department of Defense, and has directed several studies for U.S. and foreign shipbuilding and aerospace firms. Mr. Polmar has been a consultant to the Director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Mr. Polmar also served as a consultant to three U.S. Senators and to two members of the House of Representatives, as a consultant or advisor to three Secretaries of the Navy and two Chiefs of Naval Operations, and as a consultant to the Deputy Counselor to President Reagan.
           
Mr. Polmar has written or coauthored more than 40 books and numerous articles on naval, intelligence, and aviation subjects.  His comparative analysis of U.S. and Soviet submarine design and construction, COLD WAR SUBMARINES, written in collaboration with Mr. Kenneth J. Moore and the Russian submarine design bureaus RUBIN and MALACHITE, was published in late 2003.

For the past three decades he has been author of the reference books Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet and Guide to the Soviet Navy.  

Mr. Polmar’s articles and comments appear frequently in various newspapers and periodicals and he is a columnist for the Proceedings and Naval History magazines, both published by the U.S. Naval Institute.

From 1967 to 1977 Mr. Polmar was editor of the United States and several other sections of the annual Jane's Fighting Ships.

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