Arihant Class Submarine - Indian Navy ballistic missile submarines

The Arihant class submarines ("Slayer of Enemies") are nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, being developed for the Indian Navy. The INS Arihant was introduced to the public on July 26, 2009 at a symbolic launch ceremony, which consisted of floating it by flooding the dry dock. The Arihant class is India's first indigenously designed and built submarine. The class is expected to consist of four vessels to be in commission with the Indian Navy by 2015, with a further four vessels planned to follow on. The Arihant class vessels were designed as a part of India's US$2.9 billion project to design and build nuclear-powered submarines.

The Arihant class submarines similar to the Russian Charlie-II class submarine, which India leased from the Soviet Union between 1988 and 1991. Personnel will have the opportunity to train on a Akula-II class nuclear attack submarine it will lease from Russia sometime in the second quarter of 2010. It is conjectured that India may have struck deal for the supply of two of these submarines with an option to purchase them in the future.

Arihant Class Submarine overview
Name:	Arihant
Builders:	Shipbuilding Centre (SBC), Vishakapatnam, Andhra Pradesh
Operators:	Indian Navy
Succeeded by:	Arihant follow-on submarine
In commission:	2011- (est.)
Building:	4
Planned:	4
General characteristics
Type:	Ballistic missile submarine
Displacement:	6,000 tons
Length:	112 m (367 ft)
Beam:	15 m (49 ft) (Est.)
Draft:	10 m (33 ft) (Est.)
Propulsion:	85MW PWR using 40% enriched uranium fuel; 1 turbine (47,000hp/70MW); 1 shaft; 1 7-bladed, high-skew propeller
Speed:	12–15 knots (22–28 km/h) (surfaced); 24 knots (44 km/h) (submerged)
Range:	unlimited except by food supplies
Test depth:	300 m (980 ft) (est)
Complement:	95
Sensors and processing systems:	USHUS Sonar
Armament:	Torpedoes: 6 21" (533mm) torpedo tubes - est. 30 charges (torpedoes, missiles or mines) SLBM - 4 launch tubes (each with 2.4 meter diameter) 12 x K15 SLBM (3 in each launch tube) or 4 x K-4 SLBM (Under development)

The Arihant class submarines may possibly be armed with the existing 750 km K-15 Sagarika SLBM or the under-development K-4, an SLBM version of Agni-III.

Although it was widely speculated, the submarine does not sport either a "bulb" like towed array sonar, or a low blended sail. The glimpses of the submarine provided to the media seems to indicate a design with a blended hump behind the sail for the vertical launchers.

The Arihant class submarines hull features twin flank-array sonars and Rafael broadband expendable anti-torpedo countermeasures. The UPA government's report card carried an image of INS Arihant, which provided the first glimpse of the complete sub.