India Emerges With Submerged Test

India is ready to join the big 5, just ask virtually every news organization in India covering this story. The big five being the US, Russia, Britain, France, and China and the topic being nuclear weapon delivery from the 'triad.' The next big hurdle is the submarine leg of the triad, and the first submerged test is about to take place.

India will soon conduct its first test of a submarine-based ballistic missile which can be tipped with a nuclear warhead, an official announced on Monday.

The experimental missile will be fired from a submerged pontoon, said S. Prahlada, chief controller of India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

"We have completed all preparations for the first-ever test launch of the missile and are awaiting the government's nod," Prahlada told reporters on the sidelines of a major arms fair in the Indian capital.

The missile, named K-15, has a top range of 700 kilometres (438 miles).

The short ranged K-15 is the first step, it will be used for integration with the new Advanced Technology Vessels (ATV) that we can expect to emerge next year. For those who don't know, the ATV is a SSBN.

The long term plan is to build 3 ATVs, which will deploy with the K-15 early and eventually replace that missile with a nasalized version of the land based Agni-III ballistic missile. Indian scientists have claimed in the past they have the technology to add a 1,500 KM booster to the missile to give it a range of greater than 5,500 km. The Agni-III has only been tested twice though, the first time in spectacular failure and the second successful, so this isn't happening in the short term.

What is happening in the short term though is a young military finding its way with a steady evolutionary approach. I noted this in several articles.

The missile, which will be able to hit targets deep inside China, will be ready for operational development only by 2010 or so.

It isn't very encouraging when press articles include the operational date of their new ballistic missile and "hit targets deep in China" in the same sentence. Unfortunately,tThere were other reports with similar undertones.

Some very good background here.