(See) Indische Atom U-Boote

[Erich]

es geht ja nicht nur um die Raketensilos (und das Risiko, dass bei einem Unterwasser-Start das U-Boot absäuft sollte man nicht vergessen) sondern auch um den Flugkörper, die Steuerung und, wie gesagt, die präzise Navigation, die nötig ist damit die Rakete auch punktgenau einschlägt.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://blogs.reuters.com/india/2009/07/31/indias-nuclear-submarine-dream-still-miles-to-go/">http://blogs.reuters.com/india/2009/07/ ... les-to-go/</a><!-- m -->

12:24 July 31st, 2009
India’s nuclear submarine dream, still miles to go

The unveiling of India’s top secret nuclear-powered submarine, three decades after it was conceived, has been greeted with much tub-thumping.

Even for a nation hungry for success and even more than that, global recognition, some of the adulation seems excessive and perhaps premature as many are starting to point out.

INS Arihant, or destroyer of enemies, has just made contact with water, as it were, with the navy flooding the dry dock at last weekend’s launch in the southern port city of Visakhapatnam. It has to be tested in the harbour, then out at sea. The nuclear reactor, the heart of the new technology, has yet to be fitted. Perhaps a bigger moment will be when that reactor goes critical.
...

As foreign affairs expert C. Raja Mohan notes here ; “Building a submarine is one of the more complex arts. Powering it with an atomic reactor and arming it with nuclear tipped missile that can be launched from underwater is the acme of modern industrial skill.”

Only five nations — the U.S., Russia, France, Britain and China — have mastered the technology so far. India took a small step last weekend,.