However, the last bit may remain an unknown, in view of India's self-imposed 1998 test-moratorium and the comprehensive test-ban treaty.
The primary aim of India's no-first use (NFU) nuclear arsenal has always been to deter China from threatening it or attempting coercion with its powerful nuclear arsenal. It is for this reason that Indian scientists have steadfastly persevered, since the early 1980s, in their endeavours to produce a missile capable of delivering a sizeable nuclear warhead(s) out to an inter-continental range of 5000-8000 km.
Their worthy efforts were crowned by success, with the successful test-firing of the Agni-V last year; and India can now claim to have an effective, land-based, nuclear deterrent against China.
An SSBN, being a vessel of immense strategic value, has to be deployed, with care and secrecy, in areas which are not frequented by shipping traffic. Their patrol stations are, therefore, chosen in remote parts of the ocean where they can loiter for months at a time, without fear of detection or interference.
The obvious corollary is; that their missile range must be adequate to reach adversary targets from safe waters. For example the Chinese Jin class SSBN is armed with the JL-2 SLBM which has a range of 8000 km and can, thus, target both San Francisco and Kolkata from the South China Sea.
In this context, it becomes obvious that the 750 km range of the K-15 is grossly insufficient for it to zero in on targets in mainland China from home waters.
To be a truly effective third leg of the nuclear triad, an Indian nuclear submarine, will have to await the delivery of an underwater launched missile of intercontinental range, so that it can threaten desired targets from safe patrols areas in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea.
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