Pakistan Far Ahead of India in Its Nuclear Technology
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Sidrah Zaheer
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Admiral Arun Prakash Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Chinese nuclear programme Federation of American Scientists Indian nuclear programme Natural Resources Defence Council Inc. nuclear capability Nuclear Information Project nuclear technology Pakistani nuclear programme peaceful nuclear programme South Asian nuclear technology
The director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, Hans M. Kristensen, and Senior Research Associate at Natural Resources Defence Council Inc. in Washington, Robert S. Norris, both have expressed their expert opinion about the South Asian nuclear technology and capability.
According to their report in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, India is far behind in its nuclear technology than Pakistan and China, both of which it sees as a rival state in many aspects. The Indian means of weapons delivery is still primitive, whereas both Pakistan and China have substantial deployed missile arsenals, as opposed to India’s fixed-wing aircraft means.
The report in the Bulletin says:
“The Agni I and Agni II, despite being declared operational, both have reliability issues that have delayed their full operational service.” Furthermore, “the bulk of the Indian ballistic missile force is comprised of three versions of Prithvi missiles, but only one of these versions, the army’s Prithvi I, has a nuclear role.”
Hence, India’s nuclear capability has been declared as short-legged and even by the admittance of India’s former naval chief, Admiral Arun Prakash, India still has many miles to go to compete with Pakistan and China when it comes to nuclear technology.
Almost disappointingly, Admiral Prakash said:
“We have to rely on the word of our DRDO/DAE scientists as far as performance, reliability, accuracy and yield of missiles and nuclear warheads are concerned. Unfortunately, hyperbolic claims coupled with dissonance within the ranks of our scientists have eroded their credibility.”
The Bulletin revealed that Pakistan has the world’s fastest-growing nuclear stockpile with some estimated 90-110 nuclear weapons in 2011. However, the nuclear programme of Pakistan is defensive like China, but India has an offensive nuclear outlook for the region. To use nuclear capability for peaceful and civilian purposes would be the money worth spent in Pakistan’s development.
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