India Commissions Third Ballistic Missile Submarine

July/August 2026

India commissioned its third nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN), the Arihat-class INS Aridhaman.

Indian media reported that sources within India’s defense and security establishment confirmed the April 3 commissioning, although the government has not officially announced it. Defense Minister Rajnath Singh did, however, post in Hindi on social media April 3, that “It’s not words but power, ‘Aridhaman’!”

Possessing three operational SSBNs is a crucial threshold for India because “To ensure round-the-clock operational deployment in the ocean, at least three submarines are required—one on patrol and the other two in maintenance or transit,” Dinakar Peri, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote April 24 in an analysis.

The INS Aridhaman also has several technological advances that enhance India’s retaliatory abilities as it seeks to defend against China and Pakistan. These include the ability to carry the K-4 submarine-launched ballistic missile, with a 3,500-kilometer range, once that missile completes its testing phase. The ship has eight vertical launch tubes, twice as many as in the first two submarines in its class.

India has already launched the next Arihat-class submarine, which experts expect to be commissioned next year.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s 2026 Yearbook, India may have begun deploying a small number of warheads on one of its SSBNs for peacetime deterrence patrols during 2025. The authors assign “considerable uncertainty” to their assessment that 12 warheads are deployed in this mode. Any coupling of missiles with their launchers during peacetime would be a departure from previous Indian policy.
—MIA CLARKE