In a major development towards buttressing India’s nuclear deterrence capabilities, its nuclear powered submarine INS Arihant on Friday successfully fired a ballistic missile.

The country has now joined the elite league of nations having the capacity to launch a submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM) with nuclear weapons. The other countries are the US, France, China, the United Kingdom and Russia.

INS Arihant, weighing nearly 6,000 tons, is the first nuclear-powered indigenously designed and built submarine. It was inducted into service in 2016. India will have another three such submarines in the next few years.

These submarines can now fire ballistic missiles K-4 and K-15 with nuclear weapons. While K-4 has a range of more than 3,000 km, K-15 has a hitting range of 750 km.

India has added muscle to its nuclear power by inducting a submarine INS Chakra built by Russia on a ten-year lease. All the submarines in India’s arsenal are termed strategic assets and based at Visakhapatnam.

Giving details of the latest test, the Defence Ministry said INS Arihant carried out a successful launch of a SLBM.

The missile was tested to a predetermined range and impacted the target area in the Bay of Bengal with very high accuracy.

All operational and technological parameters of the weapon system have been validated.

The successful user training launch of the SLBM by INS Arihant is significant to prove crew competency and validate the sub-surface ballistic nuclear(SSBN) programme, a key element of India’s nuclear deterrence capability.

A robust, survivable and assured retaliatory capability is in keeping with India’s policy to have “Credible Minimum Deterrence” that underpins its “No First Use” commitment, it said. The SSBN capability means a nuclear powered submarine carrying and firing ballistic missiles with nuclear weapons.

In November 2018, India formally declared its nuclear triad, stated in its nuclear doctrine, operational after INS Arihant completed its first deterrence patrol.