Arihant Class SSBN: News & Discussion

[vera_k]

I count 10 launch tubes, not 8. There's a couple near the flag.

[uddu]

Calling yourself a jingo and yet unaware that Aridhaman has a different hull shape than her two older sisters.

Try harder There is a reason why chetak posted that image, but it has gone above your head.

P.S. The image you posted is akin to stating that Delhi Class destroyer is the same as the Visakhapatnam Class. World of a difference.

No where it's mentioned that Aridhaman has got a different hull shape. Only mention is that of elongating the already existing structure to have more launch tubes.
Only if the K4 is not the missile for the Aridhaman class and the K5 is longer and need complete redesign of the hull strcutre to accomoodate that like the Chinese subs, then this is possible. Else no.
And again there is one thing that screams it's an A.I image. It has nothing to do with the shape, structure etc etc.
Now the A.I image may resemble Arihant because the A.I must have looked at all it's images and drawn something similar. Or the image that is indeed the Aridhaman, then it's manipulated using a tool.

[uddu]

Sirji, I did an AI search for the image and asked who posted the image first. The result I got was this.

Search and get who posted this image first
The image of the nuclear submarine INS Aridhaman (S4) was posted online by multiple sources simultaneously following its quiet commissioning on April 3, 2026. Because the Indian government conducted the event in high secrecy at the Shipbuilding Centre in Visakhapatnam, there was no single "first" official photo release.

www.thehindu.com
+1
Instead, the image emerged through a few primary channels on that day:
Rajnath Singh: The Union Defence Minister acknowledged the event on his X (formerly Twitter) account with a cryptic post stating, "Shabd nahi, shakti hai 'Aridaman'" ("It's not words but power, 'Aridhaman'!").
Media and Press: Publications like The Hindu published the photo, credited to a PTI Photo via a social media post by Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.
News Broadcasters: Outlets like All India Radio News and various defense tracking handles also shared the visual widely across platforms like Threads, Instagram, and Facebook on the morning of the commissioning.

www.instagram.com
+2

Now let's decode what's being said. "there was no single "first" official photo release."
Rajnath Singh:cryptic post stating, "Shabd nahi, shakti hai 'Aridaman'"
Publications like The Hindu published the photo, credited to a PTI Photo via a social media post by Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.

Kishan Reddy has also posted
https://x.com/kishanreddybjp/status/2040008671535726969

News Broadcasters: Outlets like All India Radio News and various defense tracking handles
https://www.threads.com/@airnewsalerts/ ... lt-nuclear

A.I is pointing to two sources from the image must have originated. One is Union Minister Jyotiraditya another is All India Radio News. I will also add Kishan Reddy to the list.
Now you need to notice that Rajnath Singh did not publish the image. It was only "Shabd nahi, shakti hai 'Aridaman'"
If indeed it's an image of the Aridhaman, it must have come from official sources including MoD, Rajnath Singh, PIB etc. Nothing happened.
So be assured, that it was an AI image generated by the minister or All India Radio
Until the image actually appears it's "Shabd nahi, shakti hai 'Aridaman'"

[uddu]

India to Expedite S5 SSBN Project with Parallel Sub Construction, 190 MW Reactors, and K-6 ICBM Integration
https://defence.in/threads/india-to-exp ... ion.17644/

Open-source naval estimates indicate the new S5 class could displace anywhere from 13,500 to as much as 17,000 tonnes, providing a formidable, globally competitive platform for intercontinental strikes.

In order to handle the massive size of the S5-class, a newly constructed, heavy-duty dry dock was made operational in 2025.

This vital infrastructure enhancement will not only accommodate the towering S5 submarines but will also serve the concurrent Project-77, which aims to build 10,000-tonne nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs) for the Indian Navy.

[uddu]

https://gentleseas.blogspot.com/2026/05 ... ction.html
May 12 2026
Some of the public images of the design being tested of the SSBN's can be seen here.

[Rakesh]

Sirji, I did an AI search for the image and asked who posted the image first. The result I got was this.=

I am amazed how you can be this dense and obtuse.

Yes, he is aware that the image is AI. And yet he still posted it. But as I said earlier, it has gone above your head.

[uddu]

Yes, he is aware that the image is AI. And yet he still posted it. But as I said earlier, it has gone above your head.

So the image is A.I. So if the post was to tell that it's carring K5, fine.
The video by Sandeep mentions S5 onwards will be carrying K5 and K6.
If that's the case, is it that the K4 also needed modification to the hull?
And regarding the hull The S5 hull design being tested shows a far better design and is it that the S4 was modified to carry the K5 as well?
https://x.com/alpha_defense/status/1762909773001839020

[uddu]

The Race to Build India’s Submarine Fleet
India is pursuing one of the world's most ambitious and secretive submarine programs in the world. From the nuclear-armed INS Aridaman to the future S5 and Project 77 attack submarines, India’s underwater fleet is entering a new era. But why did India master nuclear submarines before conventional ones? Why are SSNs considered the ultimate instruments of sea power? And can India keep pace with China’s rapidly expanding underwater fleet? Sandeep Unnithan breaks down India’s submarine programmes, the strategic logic behind them, and the race unfolding beneath the Indian Ocean.

[uddu]

https://x.com/i/status/2056617368999391652
@Varun55484761
Satellite image shows SLBM loading in Arihant class submarine at Vishakhapatnam.

[Lisa]

https://www.iiss.org/online-analysis/mi ... apability/

Deepening deterrence: India’s expanding SSBN capability

[Manish_P]

https://x.com/i/status/2056617368999391652
@Varun55484761
Satellite image shows SLBM loading in Arihant class submarine at Vishakhapatnam.
...

We do need to have closed bases... artificial ones (pens) if not natural ones

[uddu]

https://x.com/i/status/2056617368999391652
@Varun55484761
Satellite image shows SLBM loading in Arihant class submarine at Vishakhapatnam.
...

We do need to have closed bases... artificial ones (pens) if not natural ones

The submarine base being build in AP under project Varsha is for that purpose. While these loading with cranes are inevitable and done probably once, till any maintenance need done, which may include refelling etc. The missiles being heavy and cranes being huge, it will need a massive structure to cover those. Also it will limit the ability of the crane and you need to accomocate that too while designing such massive structure, including transporting those missiles from storage to the crane.

[Manish_P]

...
The submarine base being build in AP under project Varsha is for that purpose.
...

Needed on both coasts

[Rakesh]

Needed on both coasts

Missile loadings - in absence of a secured housing - are done for geopolitical messaging. The first link below is a Trident SLBM being loaded onto on Ohio Class SSBN. One can clearly see the open sky in the image. The second link is M51 SLBM being loaded onto a Triomphant Class SSBN, albeit inside a facility. However the whole point of the facility becomes moot, if you are going to take pictures

Ohio Class
Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/submarines/com ... board_the/

Triomphant Class
Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/WarshipPorn/co ... _a_french/
Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/WarshipPorn/co ... hantclass/

Loading SLBMs onto the Arihant Class - in open sky, where satellites can easily capture images - is being purposefully done. We effectively fooled US satellites in Pokharan '98. There is nothing about India's sea-based nuclear triad that we are seeing, that the stakeholders do not want you to see. The message has been duly received in Islamabad, Beijing and even in Washington D.C.

[Manish_P]

...
Missile loadings - in absence of a secured housing - are done for geopolitical messaging....

Admiral sir, I get the messaging part of the missile loading under the khula aasmaan ... That can be done whenever we wish.

It's the absolute silence, conveyed by hidden/stealth facilities like INS Varsha, that I would like more of...

And yes, I am well aware that US and Chinese hunter killer subs, both manned and unmanned, will be lurking close on the periphery of the base to catch and tail our boomers sailing out...

[S_Madhukar]

I am more worried about drones in air and underwater. We are notoriously famous for leaving gaps …recon as well as sabotage.

[Rakesh]

Admiral sir, I get the messaging part of the missile loading under the khula aasmaan ... That can be done whenever we wish.

It's the absolute silence, conveyed by hidden/stealth facilities like INS Varsha, that I would like more of...

And yes, I am well aware that US and Chinese hunter killer subs, both manned and unmanned, will be lurking close on the periphery of the base to catch and tail our boomers sailing out...

Saar, in the future...*IF* the GOI permits photographs inside INS Varsha, the goal of keeping missile loading a secret becomes pointless. Just as in the case of the set of pictures of the Triomphant Class of the French Navy. Silence comes via stealth and remaining undetected in the depths of the ocean.

INS Varsha is a fixed location, which defeats the entire point of a submarine. Unlike torpedoes, SLBMs are not expended for mere target practice. Every SLBM test firing serves a strategic purpose. Now obviously the facility where the loading occurs is highly secure, but the actual exercise of loading SLBMs is not a classified operation. At its very essence, the operation is fairly textbook and standard.

Acoustic signatures of all our surface and sub-surface vessels already exist in a digital library with the US Navy. And that library is disseminated to all US Navy assets when operating in the depths of the oceans. Each time a new vessel from our shipyards take to the sea, a US navy asset is recording & storing the signature in a secure database. I would not be surprised if Unkil - in a Machiavellian move - shares those signatures with the PLAN.

P.S. From Unkil's perspective, the elephant needs to be reminded of its "place" in the world of geopolitics.

[Manish_P]

..*IF* the GOI permits photographs inside INS Varsha, the goal of keeping missile loading a secret becomes pointless...

My point with having concealed sub bases was not entirely to mask the missile loading. That is just one sub-set (pardon the pun)

...
INS Varsha is a fixed location, which defeats the entire point of a submarine.
...

All bases, open or hidden, are fixed locations, Admiral sir. Do they also defeat the point of the submarine then?

And moving bases, like Aircraft carriers, can be tracked.. and hit.

The point is to make it more & more complicated, difficult and expensive for the enemy to hit

...
Acoustic signatures of all our surface and sub-surface vessels already exist in a digital library with the US Navy. And that library is disseminated to all US Navy assets when operating in the depths of the oceans. Each time a new vessel from our shipyards take to the sea, a US navy asset is recording & storing the signature in a secure database.
...

Yes they do. But there are ways and factors (natural and manmade) which degrade/limit the capabilities of detection and restrictions.

That's the thing with warfare - one always find ways to counter a weapon, then the other party counters the counter and then the first tries to counter the counter of the counter....until the whole thing gets way more complicated than complex 'Quad'riatic (again pardon the pun) equations..

[Rakesh]

My point with having concealed sub bases was not entirely to mask the missile loading. That is just one sub-set (pardon the pun)

Ok.

All bases, open or hidden, are fixed locations, Admiral sir. Do they also defeat the point of the submarine then?

And moving bases, like Aircraft carriers, can be tracked.. and hit.

The point is to make it more & more complicated, difficult and expensive for the enemy to hit

Saab's most memorable marketing line - with regards to the Gripen - is the following ---> an aircraft is only valuable when it is in the air.

While a moving target can be tracked, engaged and even effectively neutralized....the statistical odds of successful engagement are heavily in favour of a target that is static/immovable. Example: Op Sindoor --> How many PAF airbases were successfully engaged by the IAF vs how many aircraft did the PAF lose during aerial operations? Losing the ability to operate from an airbase has far greater ramifications than losing aircraft.

The USP of an aircraft carrier - or any mobile platform - is that it can move out of a potential zone of danger. A fixed target cannot do that.

You are correct ---> the point is to make it more complicated, difficult and expensive for the enemy to hit. And the best way to do that is by being mobile. A submarine pen - like INS Varsha - is designed to shelter submarines from the eyes of prying satellites and will also serve to undergo maintenance and resupply. But if the PLAN was successful in neutralizing INS Varsha in a future conflict, it will complicate matters for our stakeholders.

The more time a submarine spends at port, increases the vulnerability & visibility of that platform. The most effective counter to that is for boats to be out in the open sea i.e. Run Silent, Run Deep. You cannot engage a target that you cannot see. Now obviously one cannot have boats at sea at all times, but the lesser time spent at port...the better.

Yes they do. But there are ways and factors (natural and manmade) which degrade/limit the capabilities of detection and restrictions.

That's the thing with warfare - one always find ways to counter a weapon, then the other party counters the counter and then the first tries to counter the counter of the counter....until the whole thing gets way more complicated than complex 'Quad'riatic (again pardon the pun) equations..

True, but Unkil has a vast lead - over everyone else - in naval research i.e. sonar, acoustics, detection, etc. Remember IRIS Dena? Had the IN detected a US navy submarine operating just outside of India's periphery, it is likely that IRIS Dena would have been warned. Unkil tracked her, engaged her and sunk her. And the rona-dhona that followed is history.

[Manish_P]

...
The more time a submarine spends at port, increases the vulnerability & visibility of that platform. The most effective counter to that is for boats to be out in the open sea i.e. Run Silent, Run Deep. You cannot engage a target that you cannot see. Now obviously one cannot have boats at sea at all times, but the lesser time spent at port...the better.
...

Yes. But the submarine, and all moving weapon platforms, have to come back to base. And not once a while either. The supplies run low (the resupply vessel can and often is tracked). The various systems/components on the submarine need maintenance/replacement - some of which can be done only at the base. The personnel manning it have to return to their families. So if that base is more difficult to see/monitor & extremely difficult to hit then the better it is. From safety point of view. That was my point.

... Had the IN detected a US navy submarine operating just outside of India's periphery, it is likely that IRIS Dena would have been warned. Unkil tracked her, engaged her and sunk her...

She was a moving platform. And still she was sunk. The IRIS Lavan meanwhile is safely docked at the fixed base at Kochi

Now i wonder if she is safer at a relatively open base, where she can be hit from the air or from long range missiles, or would she be safer if she were hidden away inside a closed underground base which can be only be accessed from underwater opening via a fixed path... thereby exposing the attacking submarine to detection (or the attacking munition to interception).

I am not disagreeing at all with your points, Admiral sir. All i am saying is that the powers-that-be thought it fit to have a base like INS Varsha. I just think it would be good if we have more of them. That's all...

[S_Madhukar]

Yup I think too we need more of these on either coast and even within the same location need multiple entrances spaced out and hopefully not visible at all like being forested etc. I would have thought that deep water ports would have been great but I guess too much traffic and easy access make them risky

[Lisa]

Now i wonder if she is safer at a relatively open base, where she can be hit from the air or from long range missiles, or would she be safer if she were hidden away inside a closed underground base which can be only be accessed from underwater opening via a fixed path... thereby exposing the attacking submarine to detection (or the attacking munition to interception).

Does anyone have a link to any such base anywhere, ie only accessed from underwater?

[drnayar]

Now i wonder if she is safer at a relatively open base, where she can be hit from the air or from long range missiles, or would she be safer if she were hidden away inside a closed underground base which can be only be accessed from underwater opening via a fixed path... thereby exposing the attacking submarine to detection (or the attacking munition to interception).

Does anyone have a link to any such base anywhere, ie only accessed from underwater?

1. Balaklava Submarine Base (Object 825 GTS) - Crimea .. now being reactivated by Russia
2.Yalong Wan Submarine Base - Hainan Province, China : one of the largest under sea bases
3. Norwegian Mountain Bases (Example: Olavsvern)

[drnayar]

https://carnegieendowment.org/posts/202 ... lear-triad

The induction of INS Aridhaman, which features several technological enhancements, now gives India the third nuclear ballistic missile submarine to ensure continuous at-sea deterrent.

[Vayutuvan]

@Lisa ji, I searched on google and found this for the second one listed by @drnayar ji.

Unveiling the Bigger Picture: What Newsweek Missed About Longpo Naval Base
Justin Lord
Intelligence and Security Studies / OSINT / HUMINT / Strategic Planner
December 20, 2024

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/unveilin ... ord-emzvc/

Strategic Location & Historical Significance: Longpo provides PLAN submarines with direct passage to the deep waters of the South China Sea, an area of significant geopolitical sensitivity. It was constructed in the South China Sea, at the foot of a cliff, to allow submarines easy access to deep waters and, from there, to the Pacific Ocean. It has extensive underground facilities house up to twenty nuclear submarines, offering concealment and readiness.
...