India Conducts Nuke Capable Undersea Ballistic Missile Test

India has secretly conducted maiden test of its nuclear capable undersea ballistic missile, K-4 from indigenous submarine INS Arihant.

“The test conducted on March 31 was successful. The weapon with a dummy payload was launched from the submarine in full operational configuration,” Indian Express reported Saturday citing an unnamed source as saying.

“Having an operational range of nearly 3,500 km, the missile was fired towards north for a shorter range. It covered more than 700 km before zeroing on the target with high accuracy reaching close to zero circular error probability (CEP),” informed the source.

Apart from Arihant, the K-4 will also arm another Arihant class submarine INS Aridhaman which is currently under construction along with two others. These submarines will have eight launch tubes each.

The underwater launched ballistic missile is about 12 metres long with a diameter of 1.3 metres. It weighs around 17 tonnes and is capable of delivering two tonne warhead up to a distance of over 3,500 km. The missile is powered by solid rocket propellant. High power long range tracking systems were spread along its trajectory to track the flight path.