India’s K Missile Family – Burning Issues

Table of Contents

Why discussing K Missile family?

Shaurya is a land-based parallel of the submarine launched K-15 missile.
These ballistic weapons belong to the K missile family — codenamed after late Dr APJ Abdul Kalam — which are launched from Arihant class ofnuclear submarines.

The K family of missiles are primarily Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs), which have been indigenously developed by DRDO.
The development of these naval platform launched missiles began in the late 1990s as a step towards completing India’s nuclear triad —
The capability of launching nuclear weapons from land, sea and air based assets.
Because these missiles are to be launched from submarines, they are lighter, smaller and stealthier than their
land-based counterparts,
The Agni series of missiles which are medium and intercontinental range nuclear capable ballistic missiles.

Shaurya, whose user trial was conducted on Saturday, is a land variant of short range SLBM K-15 Sagarika, whichhas a range of at least 750 kilometers.
India has also developed and successfully tested multiple times the K-4 missiles from the family which has a range of 3500 km.
It is reported that more members of K-family — reportedly to have been codenamed K-5 and K-6 — with ranges of 5000 and 6000 km are also under development.

It has a great strategic importance in context of achieving a nuclear triad, especially in the light of ‘no first use’policy of India.
The sea-based underwater nuclear capable assets significantly increases the second strike capability of a country and thus boosts its nuclear deterrence.
These submarines can not only survive a first strike by the adversary but also can launch a strike in retaliationthus achieving Credible Nuclear Deterrence.

The development of these capabilities is important in light of India’s relations with the two neighbours China and Pakistan.
With China having deployed many of its submarines, including some which are nuclear powered and nuclear capable, this capacity building is crucial for India’s nuclear deterrence.

In the third week of January this year, DRDO conducted two successful tests of the K-4 missile from submerged platforms off the coast of Andhra Pradesh in a span of six days.
These tests were a key step towards ultimately deploying K-4 on INS Arihant, which already has K-15 onboard.
In the Saturday’s test, Shaurya was examined for several advanced parameters compared to its earlier tests, according to sources.
Shaurya, like many of the modern missiles, is a canister-based system, which means that it is stored and operated from specially designed compartments.
In the canister, the inside environment is controlled thus along with making its transport and storage easier, the shelf life of weapons also improves significantly.

Q) Which of the following statements regarding INS Arihant is correct?

1- It has been built under the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project.

2- It is the 2^nd nuclear submarines designed and built by India.

3- It can carry up to twelve K-15 Sagarika missiles.

4- INS Arihant was commissioned in 2019.