In 1982, Tom Clancy came up with this “outside the box” idea to launch nuclear missiles from hovercraft.
U.S. Naval Institute Graphic
Tom Clancy’s 1982 plan to launch nuclear missiles from US Navy hovercraft
Tag Archives: nuclear missile
Infographic: India joins the SSBN club
INS Arihant, India’s first SSBN, fires up nuclear reactor, ready for sea trials
‘Arihant’ means “slayer of enemies” in Sanskrit. That’s a heck of a name for a missile boat!
India plans to build 4 boats in the Arihant class. The INS Arihant is the lead vessel in her class and, with reactor activation, is ready to commence sea trials. The second boat in the class, the INS Aridhaman, is nearing completion at Visakhapatnam and will be ready to be launched in late 2013/early 2014.
In a first for India, nuclear sub’s reactor activated
A twin of this Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR) at Kalpakkam has been installed on INS Arihant. Photo: Special Arrangement
Capping 25 years of indigenous efforts in a technologically challenging area that only a handful of nations have mastered so far, the reactor on board India’s nuclear-powered submarine, Arihant, went into operation at 1.20 a.m. on Saturday.
Arihant’s reactor achieved “criticality” — the term used to describe the self-sustaining nuclear reaction which is the first step towards the stable production of power — when the boat was “already in the sea.”
The submarine — which is about 111 metres long, 11 metres broad and about 15 metres tall — is designed to be propelled by a pressurised water reactor (PWR) that uses enriched uranium as fuel, and light water as both coolant and moderator. The PWR will generate about 80 MWt.
The main challenge, say the scientists who worked on the project, lay in making the reactor compact enough to fit into a submarine. Besides, the reactor needs to be stable when the submarine is accelerating in the depths of the sea.
The submarine will eventually be fitted with K-15 underwater fired missiles, which can hit targets 700 km away. The K-15 missiles, which will carry nuclear warheads, are already under production. India is building three more nuclear-powered submarines at Visakhapatnam as part of its programme to shore up its second strike capability.
Five countries already possess nuclear-powered submarines: the U.S., Russia, the U.K., France and China. Apart from India, Brazil is working on naval nuclear propulsion.
Naval Matters 