Recently, satellites photographed the Indian Navy's fourth "Enemy Destroyer"-class strategic nuclear submarine under construction. The S-4 nuclear submarine, named Ali Daman, is currently being outfitted at the Visakhapatnam Shipbuilding Center in India. This satellite image shows not only many details of India's latest nuclear submarine, but also India's achievements in nuclear capacity building to deal with China. So, can India's latest strategic nuclear submarines threaten China?
Although India has always regarded itself as a great power in South Asia, and also has a sizable arsenal of nuclear weapons. But since India's 1974 nuclear test of the Smiling Buddha, its only reliable nuclear strike force has been land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles. Compared with the "three-in-one" nuclear strike means that other nuclear powers already have, India's nuclear strike capability is undoubtedly very weak, so it also attaches great importance to the construction of the "secondary nuclear counterattack" capability, and the construction of multiple strategic nuclear submarines is the best choice.
Compared with the previous S-3, the strategic nuclear submarine codenamed S-4 is the third of India's "Enemy Destroyer class", which has not only increased its tonnage by 1,000 tons to 7,000 tons, but also lengthened the missile compartment by 10 meters, allowing it to carry eight submarine-launched missiles, four more than the S-3. And this detail can also be seen from the missile hatch canopy opened on the satellite image.
The Indian Navy plans to load the S-4 strategic nuclear submarine with eight K-4 submarine-launched ballistic missiles with a range of 3,500 km, and this type of missile will also be used on the next "S-4* (because it has not yet been named, so the Indian Navy has replaced it with an asterisk)". This is because the Indian Navy believes that the current tensions in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and the rapid expansion of the Chinese Navy, make it more important than ever to equip them with long-range submarine-launched ballistic missiles to enhance their deterrence capabilities.
At present, the Indian Navy's K-15 submarine-launched ballistic missiles loaded on the S-2 "Alihant" have a range of only 750 kilometers, which is far from reaching any important targets in China, so it does not have any deterrent capability. However, India regards China as its most important "imaginary enemy," and this "imaginary enemy" is equipped with a large number of land-based and sea-based ballistic missiles that can cover the entire territory of India.
But the K-15 SLBM is not only incapable of deterring China, but even when India uses it in its conflict with Pakistan, its range is limited to targets in the south of the country. It can be said that the short-range submarine-launched ballistic missiles currently equipped by the Indian Navy only solve the problem of "having or not having them," and they are far from being "sufficient," let alone "easy to use." As a result, while India continues to build its own new nuclear submarines, it is also developing long-range submarine-launched ballistic missiles. However, due to the extremely difficult development of submarine-launched ballistic missiles, even the K-4, which has a range of only 3,500 kilometers, has not been finalized and installed by India after more than 10 test launches.
Even if the K-4 SLBM can be put into service immediately, the Indian Navy will not have enough of at least four strategic nuclear submarines needed to maintain the "secondary nuclear counterattack force". Although the "Enemy Destroyer-class" strategic nuclear submarine is planned to start construction, the first two can only be loaded with four K-15 submarine-launched ballistic missiles with a range of 750 kilometers, and their reliability cannot be guaranteed. Although the S-4, which has four additional missile compartments, is expected to be ready for service this year, it may take a long time to reach full operational status. As for the S-4*, which was added to maintain the production line without stopping, the service time is even more distant.
In this way, the Indian Navy will be able to muster up to three strategic nuclear submarines to carry out strategic cruise missions next year, but since the three can only meet the minimum requirements of "one patrol, one replacement, and one maintenance", this requires that none of the three nuclear submarines have any faults or accidents, otherwise the Indian Navy will immediately lose its vulnerable "secondary nuclear counterattack force."
Model of the S-5 strategic nuclear submarine
In view of this, before the "enemy destroyer-class" was perfected, India planned the S-5 class strategic nuclear submarine with a displacement of up to 13,500 tons! This kind of strategic nuclear submarine, which can carry up to 12 K-6 submarine-launched ballistic missiles with a range of 10,000 kilometers, will enable the Indian Navy to have the same "strategic deterrent capability" and "secondary nuclear counterattack force" as China!
But this S5-class strategic nuclear submarine is about equivalent to a "science fiction work" for India now. After all, before the 7,000-ton S-4 began sea trials and the K-4 missile with a range of 3,500 kilometers had not yet been finalized, he claimed that he would start construction in 2027 with a tonnage and missile range that could benchmark the mainstream strategic nuclear submarines of China, the United States and Russia.