India's nuclear ballistic missile submarine INS Arihant carried out a successful launch of a Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM) on October 14, 2022. The missile was tested to a predetermined range and impacted the target area in the Bay of Bengal with very high accuracy. All operational and technological parameters of the weapon system have been validated.
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India’s SLBM B05 was flight tested from Bay of Bengal off the Visakhapatnam coast (Picture source: Indian MoD)
The successful user training launch of the SLBM by INS Arihant is significant to prove crew competency and validate the SSBN programme, a key element of India’s nuclear deterrence capability. A robust, survivable and assured retaliatory capability is in keeping with India’s policy to have ‘Credible Minimum Deterrence‘ that underpins its ‘No First Use’ commitment.
Although the Ministry of Defense did not put up an official statement on which missile it fired, sources in the defence establishment indicated it was the nearly 750-km range K-15, which is already in service. Sources were responding to a query if it was the much-awaited 3,500 km range nuclear-capable missile called the K-4, which underwent its maiden test in January 2020 from a fixed underwater pontoon on the east coast.
The missile was tested to a predetermined range and impacted the target area in the Bay of Bengal with very high accuracy. This is considered to be a major milestone as earlier test firings were done from fixed underwater pontoons.
