It’s been 10 months since the India’s first ballistic missile submarine was out of commission due to the negligence of someone. The submarine INS Arihant got flooded with saltwater as someone neglected to properly close a hatch. This cost a year of repairs to the submarine. The submarine in case of surprise attack, is designed to function as a floating arsenal of nuclear weapons.
A source of Indian Navy told, a hatch of submarine was left open on the rear left side of the ship that allowed seawater to enter into the propulsion area while the Arihant was in harbour. It was observed by The Hindu.
The water was pumped out and pipes were cut out and replaced from Arihant. It became necessary to change the pipes particularly those that carry pressurized water coolant to and from the ship’s 83 megawatt nuclear reactor due to corrosion. These corroded pipes were danger to both ship’s crew and entire submarine and its nuclear weapons as well.
To construct India’s first ballistic missile submarine, $ 2.9 billion submarine technology program was used. In 2009, the construction on Arihant began, and in October 2016 it was sailing in the Indian Navy seven years later of its construction began. The revised Russian Akula-1 class was lengthened to lodge twelve K-15 short-range nuclear missiles with its or 434-mile range is to target Pakistan mainly, while four K-4 intermediate range nuclear missiles with its 2,174-mile range can reach up to Pakistan and Beijing also. After INS Arihant, a second missile submarine Arighant was launched in December.
India believes on No First Use policy regarding using nuclear weapons. It will attack only on response. The country is the sixth country in the world to put ballistic nuclear weapons in the sea, a strategy that has been designed to rotate the least part of the country’s nuclear weapons, which can lead to a surprise attack. Several countries including US use the strategy ‘Continuous At Sea Deterrence’.
How can a $ 2.9 billion submarine gets sidelined from the world due to a simple mistake? Do not leave hatches which can possibly sink a ship, especially a submarine, the basic common sense is why the propulsion section and the nuclear reactor on the 364 feet long submarine reached, so that the flood will not be noticed, unless it is so? INS Arihant should have attracted the best submariners to India, which makes this accident more messy.