India's navy 'greenlit' the movement of its nuclear weapons through an Instagram shot of yoga

The Indian Navy integrated yoga into its training routines decades ago and has recently begun conducting sessions aboard its warships — while also flaunting photos on Instagram, inadvertently revealing the movements of classified nuclear weapons.

Publications by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), which tracks global nuclear capabilities among other topics, have revealed that such images, for instance, suggest that one of India's oldest sea-launched missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons has likely been retired from service.

For 15 years, the Indian Navy utilized only two warships specifically configured to launch the Dhanush nuclear missiles.

Dhanush is a variant of India's short-range ballistic missile, Prithvi. Its relatively short range and liquid-fueled design necessitate refueling right before launch, severely limiting Dhanush's effectiveness as a strategic deterrent. Ships carrying these missiles would have to operate in close proximity to the coasts of Pakistan or China to strike targets, making them highly vulnerable to counterattacks.

For many years, Indian Dhanush missiles were deployed on two specially configured Sukanya-class patrol vessels, known as INS Subhadra (P51) and INS Suvarna (P52). These ships were distinct from four other Indian patrol vessels of the same class due to their missile stabilizers on the aft decks, clearly visible in satellite images, including this one from April 2018:

Over the next few years, mentions of Dhanush's activity appeared in several posts from the Indian Navy's official Facebook account, and the carrier vessels were seen in later satellite images. However, FAS grew suspicious that the missiles might have been decommissioned in favor of more modern and powerful weaponry.

Speculations were fueled by a series of Instagram posts featuring military yoga training during visits to the Seychelles in October 2022. The vessel INS Suvarna displayed new markings, indicating that by December 2021 at the latest, the missile stabilizers had been removed from the ship, rendering it unable to launch Dhanush ballistic missiles since then.

At the very time the INS Suvarna crew was practicing yoga in the Seychelles, a satellite image taken by Maxar Technologies showed another Sukanya-class patrol vessel at the Karwar naval base with a constructed aft deck, while a subsequent 2023 satellite image revealed a new pattern on it, suggesting its use as a helicopter landing pad.

This same unique deck pattern was fully captured during another yoga session in the Seychelles when INS Subhadra visited the port in February 2024, ultimately confirming researchers' suspicions regarding the ship's loss of capability to deliver Dhanush nuclear missiles.

For years, researchers have speculated that the current system would be phased out once new nuclear deterrent capabilities became available. Judging by all these photographs, the timing for a replacement has arrived: the Indian submarine carrying ballistic missiles, INS Arighat, is likely to be commissioned into the Navy by the end of 2024. Another two ballistic missile submarines are expected to be launched within this decade, with satellite imagery indicating they will be capable of carrying twice as many missiles as India’s first two vessels.

For a long time, India was regarded as a minor player, given the size of its nuclear arsenal (a total of 172 nuclear warheads, compared to over 5,000 in Russia and the U.S.). Like other nuclear powers, India maintains a “triad”: it possesses air-launched nuclear weapons, ground-based nuclear weapons, and sea-based nuclear weapons.