NEW DELHI: India will early next year add some sharp teeth to its sea-based leg of the nuclear triad by commissioning its third nuclear-powered submarine, which is larger than the first two and capable of carrying more long-range nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.The third such submarine, called SSBN in naval parlance, is in “the final stages of trials and will be commissioned soon” as INS Aridhaman, Navy chief Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi said on Tuesday. Sources, in turn, said the fourth SSBN (codenamed S-4*), which will also have a displacement of 7,000-tonne like INS Aridhaman, is likely to be commissioned in 2027. The first two, INS Arihant and INS Arighaat, both with a 6,000-tonne displacement, became fully operational in 2018 and 2024, respectively.Parallelly, India will also get a nuclear-powered attack submarine (called SSN), armed with conventional or non-nuclear weapons for long-range hunting-killing missions, on a 10-year lease from Russia by 2027-28.The delivery of this advanced Akula-class SSN, which will be commissioned as INS Chakra-3, was to take place much earlier under the $3 billion deal with Russia in March 2019 but has been delayed due to the ongoing Ukraine war, as reported by TOI earlier.
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