The United States Navy operates the largest fleet of nuclear submarines.Bellona Environmental Foundation web site, Nuclear Naval Vessels web page, accessed 22 October 2006. Only the United States Navy, the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, and France's Marine Nationale field an all-nuclear submarine force. By 1989, there were over 400 nuclear-powered submarines operational or being built.J. K. Shultis, R. E. Faw, Fundamentals of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Marcel Dekker, 2002, p. 340. Some 250 of these submarines have now been scrapped and some on order cancelled, due to weapons reduction programs. Russia and the United States had over one hundred each, with the United Kingdom and France fewer than twenty each and China six. The Indian Navy launched their first indigenous nuclear-powered submarines on 26 July 2009. India is also operating one nuclear attack submarine with talks of leasing one more nuclear submarine from Russia. India plans to build six nuclear attack submarines and follow on to the Arihant class of ballistic missile submarines.
