High grade steel supplied by Heavy Engineering Corporation, Ranchi was used to build the reactor vessel. Several companies supplied components of the reactor. The miniaturised naval version of the reactor was designed and built by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) in Kalpakkam. The Arihant class( nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines)- INS Arihant (S73), INS Aridhaman (S74) are built for the Indian Navy by Navy Shipbuilding Centre, Visakhapatnam. It spawned a new era in the field of cooperation between DRDO, BARC, Navy, PSUs and private industry in which these organisations synergised their efforts to achieve a significant technological and strategic milestone. The Project code named Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) Project took 25 years for completion. The hull design was lengthened and the SSN quietly transformed into an SSBN. Around the time India leased a Charlie-I class nuclear-powered attack submarine from the Soviet Union, which happened in 1988, planning veered towards building a submarine carrying ballistic missiles. The plan for the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) until the late 1980s, was to build an SSN - a fast-moving deep-diving nuclear-powered attack submarine, which would hunt surface ships. The Advanced Technology Vessel literally was a technology vessel rather than an operational capability. The four medium range missiles do not constitute much in the way of a deterrent force, while the 700 kilometer range BO-5 does not provide much in the way of a patrol area in which the submarine might hide. The ATV has four larger missile tubes for the medium-range K-15 nuclear missile, with each tube able to accomodate three smaller tubes for the shorter range BO-5 SLBM. Procedural propriety and integrity has overtaken the primary aim of affecting positive and timely procurement." The Indian defence acquisition process was fraught with unacceptable and undue delays at all stages and most of the acquisition schemes result in foreclosure. Old bureaucratic mindsets and penchant for status-quoism inhibit forward thinking. The complete process suffers from indifference, apathy, inefficiency and lassitude. One MOD report from 2011 noted "The Government has not been able to put in place a responsive, dynamic and effectivedefence procurement regime. At times it seems that indigenous India weapons programs exsist for the amusement of the Brahmans rather than the use of the Kshatriyas, and the ATV was no exception. The India caste system was divided among the Brahmans, the Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras. The Indian indigenous arms industry was characterized by bizarrely protracted development cycles, measured in decades rather than years, which as often as not fail to ever result in an operational weapon. The Soviet system tended towards less sophiticated systems that were easier to produce and simplere to operate. American hardware was sophisticaed, the product of a system where cost over-runs and schedule delays are normal. Ĭountries have distinctive national styles of military technology. In all cases, however, the submarines were all "operational" rather than test assets. Contrary to other countries, the first efforts of France were directed into the building of a ballistic missile submarine. The "normal" program, that is, the programs of the USA, UK, and the Soviet Union, all followed a consistent pattern in which a nuclear powered attack submarine design was modified to carry long range strategic ballistic missiles. Just as China built socialism "with Chinese characteristics", India has built an atomic submarine "with Indian characteristics". The Arihant Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) was difficult to understand. Arihant - Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) - Boat
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