K-15 SLBM

·         On May 12, 2008 for the first time ever, India virtually admitted to having successfully developed nuclear-capable K-15 submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), thus becoming the fifth country (after the US, Russia, France and China) in the world to acquire such a capability.

·         The admission came in the form of a citation to scientist A.K. Chakrabarti and his team for receiving the DRDO Award for Performance Excellence - 2007.

·         SLBMs for a retaliatory strike is considered crucial given India’s stated no first use policy for nuclear weapons.

·         The SLBM project has completed India’s nuclear triad, giving it the capability of launching nuclear weapons from air, surface and underwater platforms.

·         India already has Agni-I (700-km range), Agni-II (2000-km-plus) ballistic missiles and Agni-III (3,500-km) as the land-based nuclear deterrent.

·         Fighters like Sukhoi-30MKI and Mirage-2000s, which could be jury-rigged to carry nuclear weapons, constituted the air-based leg.

·         The K-15 missile is designed and developed by the DRDO to be integrated with the “mother ship”.

·         The “mother ship” refers to the three indigenous nuclear-powered submarines being built at Visakhapatnam in the 25-year-old ATV (advanced technology vessel) project, which will overall cost around Rs 20,000 crore.

·         The first of the three 6,000-tonne ATVs, each designed to carry 12 vertical-launched nuclear-tipped SLBMs, would be ‘ready to go to sea’ for trials by early 2009.

·         Powered by a turbojet, the K-15 missile, earlier known as Sagarika, could carry a nuclear warhead of 500-kg from an undersea location to a range of 700-km.

·         It is 8.5 metre long and about a metre in diameter.