Brig. Arun Bajpai
Let there be no doubt that Pakistan must be getting a chill up its spine after the news that India’s first nuclear powered submarine INS Arihant whose mini nuclear reactor had attained criticality in August this year has now entered Bay of Bengal on 15 Dec 2014 for the sea trials that will last for about a year. This deadly weapon system will join Indian navy by Dec next year. After US, Russia, China, France, and UK ,India will be the sixth country in the world to possess a indigenous nuclear powered submarine.
No country in the world can be called a nuclear power in real sense till it also posses Triad. Triad means the capability to launch nuclear strike by all three dimensions that is Land Sea and Air. Till now India had the capability of launching air borne nuclear strikes with the help of its Mirage 2000 and Sukhoi 30 MKI fighter planes and by its land based Agni series of missiles. However the problem is that enemy knows that these planes can take off only from the air bases. So a nuclear capable country like Pakistan which does not have a declared no first use nuclear policy as India has, can launch nuclear strikes at these air bases and destroy our counter strike capability right at the beginning. Even if it has not done so and our fighters have taken off, they can still be shot down by the Pakistani air defence systems and their fighter aircrafts.
Same problem is faced by the land based Agni series of nuclear capable missiles. Agreed that they are land mobile and can be moved from one place to another still we can not underestimate Pakistani intelligence. Besides to ready and fire these missiles it takes time. Though they have the advantage that once fired neither Pakistan nor china posses anti missile technology so they can not be shot down. However we are still at disadvantage because of our declared no first use nuclear strike policy.
All these problems gets taken care off once Arihant joins active service in Dec next year. One can say with confidence that this will also end the current Pakistani mischief of using jeahd from its soil against India under protection from its nuclear shield which is going on since 1988.India has already readied two more Arihant class nuclear powered submarines which will join Indian navy in close succession. This submarine can carry twelve Sagarika nuclear capable missiles each which have a range of 750 km and can cover large portions of Pakistan. These submarines are very silent, they can dive very deep under the sea, they can move very fast very silently and they do not have to surface to recharge their batteries as the conventional submarines do. In other words they are impossible to detect.
Now imagine, at any point of time two Arihants sitting deep undersea about 50 to 100 kms from Pakistani coast in Arabian Sea in ready to fire mode with 24 nuclear capable missiles targeting all major cities of Pakistan. With this sword of domicile hanging on Pakistani neck at 24×7 basis will any Pakistani General however mad he may be, dare to rattle his nuclear arsenal any time India decides to teach Pakistan a lesson? Till now India was restrained despite being a nuclear power itself because of Pakistani nuclear shield. This shield Pakistan used to blunt Indian superiority in conventional arms. So on the Pakistani side on all cases of cross border infiltration , only jehadis died who in any case are cannon fodder for Pakistani army. However after the advent and deployment of Arihants, this nuclear shield of Pakistan will be blunted and then India can damage the real culprits, the Pakistani army. India now must go all out to build more of these nuclear powered submarines and not just five which has been planned. Now Indian armed forces are also about to usher in Achhe Din.
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