New Delhi

India's third indigenously built nuclear ballistic submarine, INS Aridaman, is set to be commissioned "very soon," Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Dinesh Tripathi said on Tuesday.

INS Aridaman is an upgraded Arihant-class submarine. Earlier, in August 2024, INS Arighaat' was also commissioned in the presence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and INS Arihant was commissioned in 2016.

"Indigenous nuclear ballistic submarine INS Aridaman would be commissioned very soon," CNS Admiral Dinesh Tripathi said during a press conference ahead of the Navy day celebrations.

Apart from INS Aridaman, the Indian Navy also has INS Arighaat, and INS arahant, which will further strengthen India's nuclear triad, enhance nuclear deterrence, help in establishing strategic balance & peace in the region, and play a decisive role in the security of the country.

The construction of INS Arighaat involved the use of advanced design and manufacturing technology, detailed research & development, utilisation of special materials, complex engineering and highly skilled workmanship. It has the distinction of having the indigenous systems and equipment which were conceptualised, designed, manufactured & integrated by the Indian scientists, industry and Naval personnel, according to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

On collaborating with other nation's navies, the Admiral said that the Navy is actively guided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Vision 'Mahasagar'.

"We have conducted 21 bilateral, 9 multilateral, and 34 maritime partnership exercises, 5 corvette deployments, and 13 joint EZT approaches since the last Navy Day. I also want to highlight three maiden initiatives in the last year," the Admiral said.

Talking about the Africa-India Key maritime engagement, he said, "we partnered with 9 African countries and assembled in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Our defence minister was present there along with the defence minister of Tanzania, and we had great camaraderie and an exchange of best practices among 9 African countries. This was greatly appreciated again, and Tanzania has volunteered to host the next edition, which we plan to make biennial, so the next edition will be in 2027."

Meanwhile, also at the press conference, Vice Admiral K Swaminathan spoke on Pakistan testing missiles.

"We were already aware of Pakistan's missile launch names P282. We were watching its launch. It's their claim that it's indigenous for them but we think it's not indigenous for them but if they say so let's believe it. We watched the whole launch ad it's capabilities," the Vice Admiral said.

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Similarly, referring to Bangladesh as a "friendly neighbour", he said that there is good cooperation between the countries and he does not "see any reason why Bangladesh would turn hostile to India."