Submarine crews can meet their watery grave due to issues with propulsion, cracks, faulty reactors, or being fired upon.
But the one thing that shouldn’t be on the list of perils is failing to batten down the hatches before you go diving. It’s difficult to say just how serious of an error this is.
Hopefully, the Indian navy learned a valuable lesson when they managed to permanently disable the $2.9 billion INS Arihant, the country’s first nuclear-missile submarine, in the most clumsy way imaginable.
19FortyFive reports that The Arihant, completed in October 2016, was a significant step forward in India’s nuclear triad as a modified Russian Akula-class assault submarine.
The Arihant was designed to be a potent deterrent against India’s anxious nuclear state neighbor, Pakistan, thanks to its capacity to launch K-15 short-range and K-4 intermediate-range nuclear missiles.
The Arihant’s name, which translates to “Slayer of Enemies,” belies the fact that water finally proved its greatest nemesis, implying that the creature must have angered the Varuna.
The ship’s original crew wasn’t very good, although it contained state-of-the-art equipment.
The brand-new $2.9 billion submarine was useless for nearly a year after a crew member forgot to lock a hatch while it was docked.
It took nearly a year of repairs in the dry dock to remedy the damage when the boat almost sank because the right side hatch was open.
After water infiltrated the propulsion compartment, many pipelines that carried pressurized water coolant to and from the submarine’s 83-megawatt nuclear reactor had to be ripped open and replaced.
Thankfully, no lives were lost during the embarrassing Arihant tragedy.
Despite its shaky start, the INS Arihant has shown to be a reliable submarine by successfully exercising a Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SBLM) in October.
In all likelihood, the crew and the rest of the Indian Navy would like to forget about the open hatch event and have trust that the ocean god will be more kind in the future.
