Tag Archive for 'ATV'

Nuclear Submarine for Dummies

I am not much of a technical guy but I am trying to write this guide for dummies.

If you like it the do comment

What is a nuclear submarine?

A nuclear Submarine is a submarine which uses  nuclear material to generate power for propulsion rather than conventional resources like diesel and Fuel cells

wiki

A nuclear submarine is a submarine powered by nuclear reactor technology, as opposed to a more conventional submarine layout consisting of air-breathing diesel engines which are used to charge batteries for underwater running. The performance advantages of nuclear submarines over conventional submarines are large; nuclear propulsion, being completely independent of air, frees the submarine from the need to frequently surface, as is necessary for conventional submarines; the large amounts of power generated by a nuclear reactor allow nuclear submarines to operate at high speed for long durations; and the long interval between refuellings grant a range limited only by consumables such as food – current generations of nuclear submarines never need to be refueled throughout their 25-year lifespans. Conversely, the limited power stored in electric batteries means that even the most advanced conventional submarine can only remain submerged for a few days at slow speed, and only a few hours at top speed; recent advances in Air-independent propulsion have eroded this disadvantage somewhat. The high cost of nuclear technology means that relatively few states have fielded nuclear submarines.

Okay so how is this better than others?

1.A nuclear Submarine can stay under water for months at time .

2.It is very quite as it does not have a engine to generate power but a  nuclear reactor which reduces the noise and hence remains undetectable to enemy sonar

3.Due to its ability to stay under water for long time they avoid getting tracked by satellites when they make perth.

Cool …so what is the big fuss in making them  ?

Making a Nuclear submarine is not easy.This is because you need to miniaturize a  nuclear power reactor.

What is a nuclear power  reactor ?

Flow diagram of a Nuclear reactor

Flow diagram of a Nuclear reactor

Looks simple but on a realistic scale

it looks like this.

Nuclear power plant

Nuclear power plant

Not so easy now huh!

Now we have to miniaturize a nuclear power plant to the size of a 100sq.meter, with all the safety features intact. :D

The electricity generated from this nuclear reactor is fed to the propeller and the propeller propels the submarine.

So India has made one Huh!

Well yes, Indian has made one and it is named as INS ARIHANT (Destroyer of the enemies)

Is it operational yet?

No not yet.

As this one is the first one made by India till now it will undergo rigorous testing by the navy before it is inducted

So just one?

NO there are two more being made and one being leased from Russia for 10year.

That makes a total of 5?

Yes

Schematics

Schematics

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ATV…. Almost done

ATV

Okay as far as my last posts on ATV

Post 1

Post 2

And now this… the ATV is about to near its completion

You know what this mean….India can build any amount of nuclear Submarines at its will any time it wants.

If it want it will throw down a array of nuclear armed  nuclear submarines  on the ocean floor of china.

Just patiently waiting like a sniper for his prey to emerge…

I am too enthusiastic i guess

But they three are already on their way

And i think i have mentioned about Shaurya which is a silo based missile they can be used as a  SLBM (Submarine launched ballistic missiles).

Well the good news does not end here.It gets better.Here is the catch.

The main  hitch ( i read it some where ) in making the ATV  was the integration of  PWR (Pressurized water reactor) in other words the nuclear reactor, small enough to fit into the submarine. Now with that done we can use the same technology to power  a aircraft carrier .

We currently have a aircraft carrier being made in India here is a link

So what i mean is once this project is finished we can integrate the PWR inside a aircraft carrier and whola …. a nuclear powered Aircraft carrier.

I know it not so simple but then ,,, I am so happy.

I wonder what they will name the new nuclear powered submarines.

All the names have been taken up i guess.Lets see

NEW DELHI, Feb 12 (Reuters) – India’s project to construct three nuclear-powered submarines at a southern India naval base is near completion, officials said on Thursday. “Things are in the final stage now,” A.K. Antony, India’s defence minister, told reporters in the southern city of Bangalore.

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ATV specific Shaurya

India on Tuesday tested its K-15 submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) from a submersible pontoon launcher off Visakhapatnam,
amid some indications that the test was “not fully successful”.

Sources said the missile, which has a strike range of 700km, did not meet all the pre-flight parameters laid down for the test conducted from the launcher submerged under the sea just before 1pm. On being contacted, DRDO officials refused to say anything, holding that only M Natarajan, the scientific advisor to the defence minister, could clear the position over the test-firing of K-15.

“A test like this, even though from a pontoon launcher and not an actual submarine, generates an immense amount of data… The exact position can be given only after a detailed analysis,” said an official. It has taken around 10 years for India to even come to this stage of testing an SLBM, which has remained the preserve of the Big Five countries – US, Russia, China, France and UK.

DRDO chief controller Prahlada had told TOI earlier this month that this test would be the final test of K-15, which would then be ready to be integrated with the “mother ship”. The “mother ship”, of course, is a reference to the three indigenous nuclear-powered submarines being built at Visakhapatnam in the 25-year-old ATV (advanced technology vessel) project, which will overall cost around Rs 20,000 crore. The first of the three 6,000-tonne ATVs, each designed to carry 12 vertical-launched nuclear-tipped SLBMs, will be ‘ready to go to sea’ for trials by early 2009.

It will, however, take two to three years for the two-stage solid-fuelled K-15 to be integrated with the first ATV and then be test-fired from it.

When this happens, India will finally achieve its long-standing aim to have an operational ‘nuclear weapon triad’. India already has Agni-I (700-km range) and Agni-II (2000-km-plus) ballistic missiles, as also the Agni-III (3,500-km) which has been successfully tested only once so far, as the land-based nuclear deterrent. Fighters like Sukhoi-30MKI and Mirage-2000s, which can be jury-rigged to carry nuclear weapons, constitute the air-based leg. But the absence of nuclear-powered submarines, armed with the capability of fire nuclear-tipped missiles from under the sea, has been a gaping hole in India’s strategic capabilities.

The first test of Agni-III missile in July 2006, incidentally, had flopped miserably. Though the second test in April 2007 was successful, it will take at least three to four tests more for this China-specific missile to be fully-ready.
link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/File_In…how/2817645.cms

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