Swarajya Magazine:
India’s costliest defence project — a Rs 90,000 crore push to develop and construct a fleet of nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed submarines monitored directly by National Security Adviser Ajit Doval — has been making progress away from media glare.
The effort has borne fruit in recent years in the form of INS Arihant – India’s first indigenously built SSBN – a submarine that is powered by a nuclear reactor and is equipped with nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles. The second Arihant class submarine, INS Arighat, was launched by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during a low profile ceremony at the Ship Building Centre (SBC) drydock in Visakhapatnam on 19 November, a report by Sandeep Unnithan of India Today has revealed.
A high-profile launch of Arighat, a move that could have helped the government given elections in Gujarat, was rejected by the Prime Minister’s Office to maintain a high level of secrecy, the report has revealed. Arighat would undergo extensive sea trials for three years before being commissioned into the Indian Navy.
