RAS question
The K-4 submarine-launched ballistic missile, successfully test-fired from INS Arighaat in December 2025, has an approximate strike range of:
Correct answer: (B) 3,500 km.
The K-4 submarine-launched ballistic missile tested from INS Arighaat has an approximate strike range of 3,500 km.
Explanation
The K-4 is a submarine-launched nuclear ballistic missile with a 3,500-km range. Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) newspaper clippings, 25-26 December 2025 report that DRDO tested the K-4 from the nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine INS Arighaat in the Bay of Bengal on December 23, in a December 2025 clipping. That range matters because a submarine-launched ballistic missile strengthens sea-based nuclear deterrence: the test links to India's second-strike capability, and retaliatory-strike survivability is central to the SSBN context. The missile is therefore not a short-range naval weapon; its defining exam fact is the 3,500-km strike range, alongside its launch from an SSBN platform.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) 1,500 km understates the K-4 range; the missile is a 3,500-km system.
- (C) 5,000 km belongs to a different strategic-missile range band, not to the K-4 SLBM.
- (D) 700 km is too short for K-4; K-4 is placed at 3,500 km as a longer-range SLBM tied to second-strike deterrence.
Concept
This tests India's nuclear triad and sea-based deterrence under Science and Technology. RAS repeatedly asks such defence facts because platform, range and deterrence role often appear together in current-affairs questions.