Navy sets up base to control submarines on long-range patrols | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: With India recently commissioning its second nuclear-powered submarine INS Arighaat as part of a plan to expand both the strategic as well as conventional underwater combat fleets, the Navy is now setting up a new advanced facility to seamlessly communicate with its stealthy predators out on long-range patrols.
The very low frequency (VLF) transmitting station at Vikarabad in Telangana is slated for inauguration by defence minister Rajnath Singh on Oct 15.”The strategically-important VLF facility, once it becomes fully operational in two-three years, will provide round-the-clock encrypted communication connectivity to submerged submarines across India’s entire area of interest,” a source told TOI.
“VLF radio waves, which operate in a frequency band of 3 to 30 Kilohertz, can penetrate seawater to a certain depth for such purposes,” he added. Only a few nations have such VLF capabilities, which are especially critical for “command and control” of nuclear submarines deployed on long-range deterrent patrols.
The Navy has been running a VLF station at Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu since 1990. The new state-of-the-art VLF facility at Vikarabad is necessary for “maintaining 24x7x365 communication” for the planned induction of both diesel-electric as well as nuclear submarines, with an eye firmly on China’s increasing naval forays into the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
On Aug 29, India had inducted its second 6,000-tonne SSBN (nuclear-powered submarine with nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles) INS Arighaat, which is also capable of carrying some 3,500-km range K-4 missiles. Her forerunner INS Arihant is armed only with the 750-km range K-15 missiles.
India plans to induct the third SSBN, with a displacement of 7,000-tonne, as INS Aridhaman early next year, while a fourth is also under construction under the secretive advanced technology vessel (ATV) project. There is also a plan to eventually build 13,500-tonne SSBNs, with much more powerful 190 MW pressurised light-water reactors, as reported by TOI earlier. Moreover, the PM-led cabinet committee on security on Oct 9 also cleared the long-pending Rs 40,000-crore ‘Project-77‘ to construct two nuclear-powered attack submarines (called SSNs in naval parlance).
On the diesel-electric front, Navy will commission the sixth French-origin Scorpene submarine ‘Vagsheer’ in Dec under the over Rs 23,000 crore ‘Project-75‘ underway at Mazagon Docks (MDL).