news

The Indian Navy has been incorporating yoga into its daily training. Every year, it invites crew members and their families to surface ships, including aircraft carriers, to demonstrate the national yoga movement and post related photos on social media. However, what the Indian Navy did not expect was that these photos actually exposed the latest developments of India's highly confidential nuclear missiles.

The Ukrainian ITC website said on the 14th that the Federation of American Scientists has been conducting detailed research on the nuclear capabilities of countries around the world. Relevant researchers found through photos of yoga exercises released by the Indian Navy that a ballistic missile that can carry nuclear warheads has been retired. According to reports, the Indian Navy had previously modified two 2,000-ton offshore patrol ships, the "Subhadra" and the "Suvarna", and installed devices for launching the "Dhanush" short-range ballistic missile on their rear flight decks. The missile is actually a naval version of the Indian Army's "Earth" ballistic missile, with a range of about 350 kilometers and can carry 500 kilograms of conventional warheads or nuclear warheads. Because the Indian Navy did not overcome the technical difficulties of submarine-launched ballistic missiles earlier, this ballistic missile launched from a surface ship has become a unique symbol of India's sea-based nuclear deterrence. Since 2009, the Indian Navy has launched "Dhanush" missiles from these two patrol ships many times to demonstrate India's nuclear deterrence capabilities.

According to reports, in October 2022, the patrol ship "Suvarna" released photos of yoga exercises organized by the Indian Navy during its visit to Seychelles, indicating that the "Dhanush" missile launcher had been removed from its rear deck, and there has been no news of the ship launching a "Dhanush" missile since then. In February 2024, during the visit of the "Subhadra" to the port of Seychelles, the Indian Navy again released photos of the crew doing yoga exercises, showing that the ship's rear deck had also been cleared and converted into a flight deck, thus confirming the speculation of Western researchers that the ship had given up the ability to launch the "Dhanush" nuclear missile.

Researchers at the Federation of American Scientists believe that it is not surprising that the Indian Navy has retired the Dhanush missile. Because the missile has a short range and is designed with liquid fuel, it must spend a considerable amount of time refueling before launching, and then the patrol ships carrying nuclear missiles have to take great risks to get close to the coast of the main imaginary enemy, making them extremely vulnerable to counterattacks from the opponent. Considering that the self-defense capabilities of these two patrol ships are very limited, the effectiveness of the Dhanush missile as a nuclear deterrent force of the Indian Navy has been questioned. For many years, researchers have speculated that as long as the Indian Navy acquires new nuclear deterrent capabilities, the Dhanush missile will be eliminated.

The report said that the time has come to replace the Indian Navy's nuclear missiles. The US "Navy News" website said on the 13th that after comprehensive testing and upgrading, India's second ballistic missile nuclear submarine "Arigat" is ready to join the Indian Navy in the next one or two months. Like India's first nuclear submarine "Arihant", it is equipped with K-15 submarine-launched ballistic missiles with a range of 750 kilometers, but the "Arigat" carries more missiles. According to the Indian Navy's subsequent plan, the third and fourth strategic nuclear submarines under construction will carry a new generation of K-4 submarine-launched ballistic missiles with a range of 3,500 kilometers and are ready to serve next year. At the same time, the Indian Navy is also planning to build a strategic nuclear submarine with a displacement of 13,500 tons and can carry 12 long-range submarine-launched missiles. In addition, the Indian Navy's project to build two attack nuclear submarines equipped with torpedoes, anti-ship missiles and land-attack missiles is awaiting final approval from the Indian Cabinet Security Committee.

Source: Global Times