INS ARIHANT FIRST SEA PATROL AND THE STORY OF OPEN HATCH
Recently the Chinese have denigrated the Indian Navy as unprofessional on account of recent fire on board INS VIKRAMADITYA. Though they forget that analyzing on the same line, the Chinese Navy is nothing more than a rust bucket navy. Similarly a section of the Indian Media keeps repeating the story regarding INS ARIHANT having left a hatch open which virtually “ Sunk” the the most important platform within India’s nuclear triad covering land-air-sea modes. This report was first made public by not a tabloid but by HINDU, a leading newspaper from Chennai.
The “Smart” reporter wrote “Well, it’s important if it works — and it probably helps to make your submarine watertight.
The modern submarine is not a simple machine. A loss of propulsion, unexpected flooding, or trouble with reactors or weapons can doom a sub crew to a watery grave.
Also, it’s a good idea to, like, close the hatches before you dive.”
This is the kind of reporting available when newspapers bank upon so called experts, who will, with help of their English, write on any subject on this Earth, without even knowing what it is.
As per HINDU the Indian navy, managed to put the country’s first nuclear-missile submarine, the $2.9 billion INS ARIHANT, out of commission in the most boneheaded way possible.
INS ARIHANT as per HINDU, remained out of commission for months since suffering “major damage” due to a “human error” — allowing water to flood to sub’s propulsion compartment after failing to secure one of the vessel’s external hatches.
Water rushed in as a hatch on the rear side was left open by mistake while the submarine was at harbor. Then, the sub “has been undergoing repairs and clean up,” according to the paper: “Besides other repair work, many pipes had to be cut open and replaced.”
Kyle Mizokami, a self styled expert fell for the simplest trick played by the Indian Navy.He wrote in the Popular Mechanics: Indian authorities ordered the pipe replacement because they “likely felt that pipes exposed to corrosive seawater couldn’t be trusted again, particularly pipes that carry pressurized water coolant to and from the ship’s 83 megawatt nuclear reactor. For context, a submarine assigned to Britain’s Royal Navy narrowly avoided a complete reactor meltdown in 2012 after the power sources for its coolant system failed.”
The smart fellow even acts sarcastic by writing
“This is just some sloppy, dangerous seamanship, and the Indian Navy better get its act together fast. Either that, or perhaps follow the Royal Navy’s lead and install the 2001-era Windows XP as an operating system on all your most vital vessels. That way, you can blame the blue screen of death instead of “human error” for the next critical foul-up. Although even outdated software probably knows enough to dog down on all the hatches.” Shame is that our newspapers just reproduce such trash.
So while the world thought of the incident as quite an embarrassment — and strategic concern — for the Indian Armed Forces, the ARIHANT representing a major advance in India’s nuclear triad after its completion in October 2016, was quietly acquiring the ability to launch K4 missiles and getting ready to move out on its first deterrent patrol.
One fine day the Indian SSBN slipped out unnoticed and undetected and the world came to know about its first deterrent patrol only after its return was announced by our Prime Minister.
