Revealed on August 20, 2014 is INS Arihant's conventional sail, supporting diving planes, The sail is similar to US Ohio Class and Russian Delta class SSBNs. The small hump for SLBMs aft of Arihant's sail indicates a limited missile carrying capacity underlining Arihant's main role as an experimental testbed rather than being a fully armed SSBN.
Information is mainly drawn from http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/ndtv-exclusive-this-is-ins-arihant-first-made-in-india-nuclear-submarine-578949?curl=1408597764and my knowledge of Indian subs since 2009 with many previous articles on this blog concerning Arihant..
Published on August 20, 2014 is the first clear image of INS Arihant, India's first indigenous nuclear-powered submarine. It may initially be armed with 12 750km-range K-15 (Bo-5) SLBM or four larger K-4s with a 3,500km range. The image above is a still from this NDTV news report .
Arihant is the first of a class of three nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines with a displacement of 6,000 tonnes. Arihant has a Indian-Russian designed-and-built 83MW pressurized water reactor.
This earlier image on this blog after Arihant was launched on July 26, 2009, gave little away (being highly touched up). Whereas the above photo clearly shows the distinctive 'hump' aft of the sail, where the ballistic missiles will be housed. The sail looks very similar to the sail of Russian Delta class SSBNs. Arihant appears to have a much better integrated missile hump than the Deltas and China's Type 094 SSBN.
The performance of SSBNs are critical for strategic stability in the region. If an SSBN is noisy (as the 094 presumably is) it will be easy to track. Excessive noise may not provide assured second-strike capability against an adversary. If Arihant is initially armed only with relatively short-range weapons such as the 750km K-15 missile, it would need to operate dangerously close to Pakistan's or China's home waters, thus making Arihant vulnerable to ASW resources. Arihant would be especially vulnerable if it has to move through narrow straits, like the Strait of Malacca, to get to Chinese waters. The longer-range K-4 missile has been tested from an undersea platform but is years from being operationally deployed on Arihant.
The nuclear sub design evolutionary process was particularly difficult for the US, Russia and China involving many test nuclear subs. As the UK and France received direct or indirect assistance from the US their evolutionary stages were far briefer involving fewer test subs. Much of the money India paid to Russia to modernise India's other nuclear submarine INS Chakra (the ex Russian Nerpa SSN) was for Chakra. But much of that money has also cross-subsidised Russian assistance to accelerate Arihant's development. A good strategy.
The nuclear sub design evolutionary process was particularly difficult for the US, Russia and China involving many test nuclear subs. As the UK and France received direct or indirect assistance from the US their evolutionary stages were far briefer involving fewer test subs. Much of the money India paid to Russia to modernise India's other nuclear submarine INS Chakra (the ex Russian Nerpa SSN) was for Chakra. But much of that money has also cross-subsidised Russian assistance to accelerate Arihant's development. A good strategy.
Like other key strategic weapons systems, Arihant is being jointly developed by DRDO. It is highly likely that Russian advisers are assisting the Indian Navy with Arihant (especially with the reactor and also SLBM techniques).
Pete
Connect this Arihant article with the first INS Arihant Launched July 26, 2009http://gentleseas.blogspot.com.au/2009/08/arihant-indias-first-homebuilt-nuclear.html written on this blog days after Arihant was launched.
Pete