picture 171338

Perhaps unusually, the Indian Navy deploys two Sukanya-class off-shore patrol vessels – INS Subhadra, shown here, and INS Suvarna – equipped with storage, elevation and launching facilities for the Dhanush missile, which has a range of 350km. The Dhanush is the ship-launched variant of the Prithvi ballistic missile, possibly having a slightly longer range at the cost of a reduced payload. Their very light self-defence armament indicates that both vessels are test-rigs used to develop elevation, stabilisation and launch mechanisms for sea operations, necessary for K-4 and K-15 missiles. (Artwork by Ivan Zajac)