Romanov Points

The Government of India announced the successful launch of a missile from a nuclear submarine submerged in the Indian Ocean. The test is regarded as an obvious signal in the direction of China, which is pursuing a policy of actively expanding its presence in this region. It is possible that a missile was used that could potentially strike Beijing.

The launch, according to the Government of India, was carried out in the Bay of Bengal from the Indian-made Arihant nuclear submarine. Everything else is being kept under wraps, including the type of missile and the exact test area. It is not even reported that only such launches were carried out earlier.

Arihant (Sanskrit for Destroyer of Enemies) is the first Indian nuclear-powered strategic submarine of its own production, it entered the country’s Navy in 2016. Its displacement is 6 thousand tons, length is 111 meters, the crew is 95 people.

The submarine has four vertical launchers and can carry up to 12 K-12 ballistic missiles with a range of 750 km or four K-4 missiles with a range of up to 3,500 thousand km. At present, the second submarine of this class has already been tested, and in August it was introduced into the fleet. Two more submarines with a large displacement will be built. They will already have eight launchers and, accordingly, more missiles of the same types. But these submarines will operate only in the Indian Ocean - to the Pacific, closer to China, they will not be sent. Arihant-class submarines are too noisy, the enemy will notice them relatively easily.

Now attention: K-12 and K-4 missiles with nuclear warheads can strike all over Pakistan and parts of China. At the same time, K-4 is capable of hitting even the Beijing zone. However, for this, the rocket must be launched from the northern part of the Bay of Bengal. Apparently, it is precisely because of the delicacy of the topic that the Indian authorities are hiding the area where the current test is being conducted. By the way, this summer India introduced its first home-built attack aircraft carrier into the fleet.