India will be launching its second indigenous nuclear submarine by the end of September or beginning of October.
The launching will be taking the submarine from a dry dock into the waters for the first time. The submarine will then undergo rigorous sea trials and if it succeeds it will be inducted in to the Indian Navy in 2019.
The launch may be done by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman which will keep the tradition that boats are launched by a woman. In 2009, the first indigenous nuclear submarine INS Arihant was launched by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s wife Gursharan Kaur.
In August 2016, INS Arihant was inducted in the Indian Navy making it the first nuclear submarine built by the country.
The second submarine will be named Aridhaman and is being built under the Advanced Technology Vessel project at the Ship Building Centre in Visakhapatnam. Aridhaman will be packed with twice the number of missile hatches compared to its predecessor. The INS Arihant was powered by an 83 MW pressurized light water reactor but Aridhaman will be twice as powerful.
The second submarine will be powered by a pressurized water reactor with a seven blade propeller. The submarine will be able to reach a speed of 12 to 15 knots on the surface and up to 24 knots under water.
Aridhaman has eight vertical launch tubes that can hold 24 K-15 missiles or eight K-4 missiles. The K-15 can shoot at the range of 750 km while the K-4 is much more powerful with a range of 3,500 km.
