Power at sea

“The Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM) is about the most complex weapon system around and to expect that we have far advanced along that road will be naïve. In short, there is a long way to go before India will have a credible Triad capability.”
____________________

by Premvir Das

(July 08, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) Recent reports reveal that the Russians will deliver a nuclear powered submarine of the Akula class to the Indian Navy by the end of 2009. Some have suggested that with the induction of this boat, to be named INS Chakra, as a successor to the Charlie class vessel leased from the former USSR in 1988, India’s nuclear Triad would be complete.

The acquisition of the submarine is, of course, to be welcomed; however, to claim that it would fill the missing gap in underwater nuclear weapon capability is highly ambitious if not outright incorrect. The Akula, though powered by a nuclear reactor, will come with conventional weapons only as, indeed, did the first Chakra twenty years ago.

It will have no nuclear weapon capability; it is naïve for anyone to have thought that the Russians, full fledged members of the NPT and the NSG could even dream of making those transfers to India. And, nuclear powered vessels are not, necessarily nuclear weapon platforms; there is a great bridge to be crossed.

There is need for us to be more accurate in looking at the military environment especially those elements which impact upon us directly. The question, therefore, that needs to be answered is what India will get out of this induction.

Induction of the Chakra in 1988 was a step in learning how to operate and maintain a vessel of the sophistication and complexity of a nuclear platform. This is how the Indian Navy entered the world of nuclear submarines.

The vessel was returned in 1991, as scheduled, but the three years of lease were a huge learning experience. People, including crews, going on board and coming off, had to undergo rigid procedures to safeguard against radiation, regular and continuous monitoring of waters around the submarine was carried out to see if discharges, howsoever meager, were not leading to contamination, plans and procedures were put in place and then exercised frequently to cope with unforeseen contingencies.

This was not enough. Mechanisms were established to review these drills and to modify and update them as necessary, and interactive structures were civilian agencies, including the port and district administration, were constituted to allay fears and suspicions quite normal in the context of nuclear reactors operating in close proximity of civilian populations.

All this was not easy. There were protests from environmentalists and other complications that had to be resolved. Meanwhile, training of crews, the first lot which sailed the vessel from Vladivostok to Visakhapatnam and two thereafter, continued apace and the efficacy of training was proved when a major accident at sea involving the reactor was successfully and competently countered.

Considerable all round expertise had been built up when the lease came to an end. In these intervening seventeen years’ much of it has withered away and been lost. We will, in effect, have to start all over again; training of some crews in Russia being only one small part of the much larger whole.

But there is, at least, the confidence that the route has been traveled earlier and when the new Chakra steams in a year and a half from now, it will be in waters that have been traversed before.

Frankly, the new Chakra does not bring in any more capabilities than the submarines in service already have. The Kilo class boats are equipped with the 300 kilometer missile and the Scorpenes will also have a weapon of the same capability.

The difference will lie in the greater endurance of the nuclear powered Chakra which will allow her to deploy at sea for much longer periods. The real benefits will, however, come elsewhere. It is more than likely that designers involved in development of our own ATV had much to learn from their association with the old Chakra and now that the programme has progressed considerably, presence of the newer and more sophisticated vessel will help them check out their own layouts and testing procedures.

Reportedly, the ATV platform could be afloat by 2010 and it will be necessary to subject the vessel to sustained and strenuous trials; data available through the induction of Chakra will facilitate this process.

Similarly, an entirely new set of technical and support facilities will need to be put in place for the submarine being acquired from Russia and these will also be useful for the vessel being built indigenously. So, it is a win-win situation.

This brings us back to the question of Triad capability. At present, delivery capability lies in aircraft of the IAF and the Prithvi and Agni series of land based missiles. Trials have been carried out with a Prithvi system fitted in a surface ship but credible sea based capability can only be provided from a submarine.

In our context, only the ATV can do this. A long range missile, with a nuclear weapon capable of being fired from below the water is needed. There have been reports that trials of underwater launch from a fixed structure have been successfully carried out. While this should be cause for some satisfaction much more remains to be done.

The Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM) is about the most complex weapon system around and to expect that we have far advanced along that road will be naïve. In short, there is a long way to go before India will have a credible Triad capability.

Access to critical technologies, contingent upon lifting of sanctions, is essential for India to become a credible nuclear weapon state. Much more than tests of weapons which had been the focus thus far, development of delivery systems is now important. If we can have a nuclear submarine at sea with a proven SLBM in the next five years, it will be something to be very satisfied about.

The writer is a former Commander-in-Chief , Eastern Naval Command ,Indian Navy
- Sri Lanka Guardian