INDIA – India’s second nuclear-capable ballistic missile submarine joined its naval fleet late last month, a move the government says strengthens its nuclear deterrent as New Delhi casts a wary eye at both China and Pakistan.

But India is still playing catch-up, at least compared with China, as the People’s Liberation Army grows its fleet as well as its land and air capabilities amid simmering tensions along their shared border.

The nuclear-powered sub, INS Arighaat – “Destroyer of the Enemy” in Sanskrit – will “help in establishing strategic balance” in the region, Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said at an August 29 commissioning ceremony at Visakhapatnam naval base, the headquarters of India’s Eastern Naval Command on the Bay of Bengal coast.

That balance currently tilts in favor of China, with the world’s largest navy by numbers, including six operational Jin-class nuclear-powered ballistic submarines that outclass India’s two Arighaat and its predecessor in the same class, INS Arihant  in firepower.

The Chinese subs can carry a dozen ballistic missiles with ranges of at least 8,000 kilometers (4,970 miles) and have the ability to carry multiple nuclear warheads, according to the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, a non-profit organization promoting the development and deployment of missile defense for the United States and its allies.

Both 366 feet long with a 6,000-ton displacement, according to an analysis by the open-source intelligence agency Janes, Arighaat and Arihant carry K-15 Sagarika ballistic missiles that can be launched from four vertical launch tubes. But the range of the nuclear-tipped K-15 is thought to be only around 750 kilometers (466 miles), limiting the targets that can be struck from the Indian Ocean.

“The INS Arihant-class can barely reach Chinese targets along the eastern Sino-Indian border from the coastal waters of northern Bay of Bengal, which is dangerously shallow for a submarine,” said analyst Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the US Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center.

The de facto border between India and China, known as the Line of Actual Control, has been a longtime flashpoint between the two. Troops most recently clashed there in 2022 and in 2020, when hand-to-hand fighting between the two sides resulted in the deaths of at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers in Aksai Chin. (CNN)…[+]

Foto onderschrift

India tested its medium-range submarine-launched ballistic from a secret location in the Bay of Bengal. (Photo: CNN)