MAD: mutually assured destruction (Rev 16)

 
Regular missile tests maintain India-Pakistan status quo

New Delhi, May 15 Abheet Singh Sethi IANS1 day ago

Last month, India tested its indigenously-developed 3,000-km Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) Agni III, while Pakistan tested its 1,300-km Medium Range Ballistic Missile (MRBM) Ghauri.

Both missiles are part of an ever-growing arsenal capable of reaching every corner of rival territory (including India’s Andaman Islands) and carrying both conventional and nuclear warheads. Ironically, these tests are also a good way of ensuring the two countries do not go to war.
“Such tests are considered routine exercises for the two arch-rivals since they developed nuclear weapons capabilities in 1998,” according to Foreign Policy.

Nuclear weapons carried by ballistic missiles are strategic weapons of mass destruction meant primarily to scare and deter, usually ending in strategic stalemates between countries that possess such arsenals.

The possibility of “mutually assured destruction“, or MAD, as it is commonly known, also prevents their use on the subcontinent.

India’s ballistic-missile programme is driven by the threat it perceives from its nuclear armed neighbours Pakistan and China.

On May 11, 1998, India’s then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee declared to the world that India had become a nuclear weapons state after successfully detonating three devices. Less than three weeks later, Pakistan also conducted nuclear weapons tests.

On the 17th year anniversary of India’s nuclear weapons test, Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the efforts of Indian scientists with the following tweet.

“We salute efforts of our scientists & political leadership behind the success of Pokhran Tests on this day in 1998. pic.twitter.com/vPVb1v6xxk — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 11, 2015″

Almost 17 years later, the arch rivals each test fired ballistic missiles. These are strategic delivery systems capable of delivering either nuclear or conventional warheads deep inside each other’s territory, with the focus being predominantly on the former.

Land, fire and falcons

When it comes to Pakistan, India has developed/is developing the Prithvi and Agni series of surface-to-surface ballistic missiles.

The Prithvi series comprises three short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM) with a range of 150-350 km, capable of targeting major Pakistani cities, such as Lahore, Sialkot, the capital Islamabad and Rawalpindi according to an IndiaSpend analysis.

The Prithvi series are road mobile and deployed. Development of the Prithvi series began in 1983.
Agni I and II, with ranges of 700 km and 2,000 km respectively, are capable of targeting almost all major Pakistani cities, including Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Multan, Peshawar, Karachi, Quetta and Gwadar.

The development of the Agni I began in 1999, and it was first tested in January 2002. The Agni I fills the gap between the SRBM Prithvi series and medium-range Agni II missile. It has been in service since 2004.

The Agni II is a medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM), first tested in April 1999. It allows India to attack all of Pakistan, although it falls short of major targets within China. Like Agni I, it too is highly accurate and is road and rail mobile.

Agni III, IV and V, with their longer ranges, might be able to reach all of Pakistan, but it can be safely said that they are directed more towards China.

Pakistan’s Hatf (named after the sword of Prophet Muhammad, pbuh) series of ballistic missiles have been developed–and is still under development–keeping India in mind. These missiles have varying ranges starting from 70 km, and go up to 2750 km. Some of these missiles are variants of existing Chinese and North Korean ballistic missiles, according to a report on Pakistan’s ballistic missile programme by the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bangalore.

Of these, the operational SRBM Ghaznavi (named after the 11th-century Afghan invader Mahmud Ghazni) is a shortened version of the Chinese M-11 missile and has a range of between 270 km to 350 km; this means it can target Ludhiana, Ahmedabad and the outer perimeter of Delhi.

The recently-tested Ghauri (named after 12th-century Afghan king Shahbuddin Ghauri, also known as Muhammad of Ghauri) is an MRBM, with a claimed range of 1,300 km and is “clearly and unambiguously North Korean in origin”, according to the NIAS report. The report adds that the missile is deployed and can target Delhi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Bhopal and Lucknow.

The Shaheen-III, a road-mobile IRBM was tested this March and has a claimed range of 2,750 km.
Addressing the Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference 2015 in Washington, Lieutenant General Khalid Kidwai (retd), a former head of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons division, said Pakistan has developed the Shaheen III to prevent India from attaining a nuclear second-strike capability from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

(In arrangement with IndiaSpend.org, a data-driven, non-profit, public-interest journalism platform, with which Abheet Singh Sethi is a policy analyst. The views expressed are personal. Additional inputs from Ramya Panuganty, junior research fellow, National Institute of Advanced Studies)

–IANS/IndiaSpend
abheet/vm

China helping Pakistani nuclear horn (Dan 7)

 
China building Nuclear plants in Pakistan inconsistent with NGS rules: US

PTI

WASHINGTON: China’s move to build nuclear power plants in Pakistan is not consistent with the rules of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and the United States has raised this issue in its bilateral meetings with the communist nation, a top Obama Administration official has said.

“When China became a member of the NSG, there was a consensus from other members to grandfather construction of plants in Pakistan which China had initiated. However, there was not agreement that that was an open-ended clause,” Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Non-Proliferation Thomas Countryman said.

“The problem is that China has since announced other power plants that it intends to build in Pakistan, and this is not consistent with the rules of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which it joined. We raised this issue both as a bilateral issue and within the context of the Nuclear Suppliers Group,” he said in response to a question from Senator Bob Corker who noted that they (China) are not honoring the NSG guidelines.

“What measures have been built into the agreement to prevent China from exploiting nuclear technology to countries that are proliferation rich? Because China says it will abide by the nuclear suppliers group’s rules for exports but it’s already violating these rules through its continuing work on Pakistani reactors,” Senator Robert Menendez asked.

“The agreement prohibits the transfer of any US-provided technology to another country without US consent,” Countryman answered.

“But it is already violating these rules through its continuing work on Pakistani reactors,” the Senator asked.

“There’s I think a difference between violating NSG rules and, of course, the Chinese would say their action is a matter of interpretation rather than violation.

“There’s a difference between that and violating a 123 agreement, particularly when this agreement, unlike the agreement it replaces, has a specific clause that calls for temporary suspension or permanent suspension in case of violation,” Countryman said during the Congressional hearing on civil nuclear agreement with China.

The agreement, he argued, will have benefits for the US- China bilateral relationship, for nuclear safety in the US and worldwide, for our economy, and for the climate.

In his testimony, Countryman said the US relationship with China is one of the most important and complex relationships it has in the world.

“Over the last six years, the Obama Administration has established a ‘new normal’ of US engagement with the Asia-Pacific that includes relations with China defined by building high quality cooperation on a range of bilateral, regional, and global issues while constructively managing our differences and areas of competition,” he said.

China-Pakistan Nuclear Alliance (Daniel 7&8)

‘China assisted Pakistan to build 6 nuclear reactors’

Last Updated: Monday, February 9, 2015 – 00:29

Beijing: China has assisted Pakistan to build six nuclear reactors with a total installed capacity of 3.4 million kilowatts, a top Chinese official said on Sunday as Beijing plans to build two 1100 mw reactors in Karachi with USD 6.5 billion assistance.

Outlining China’s nuclear technology exports, Wang Xiaotao, vice minister of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said the country is involved in initial discussions with several countries on the possibility of exporting its nuclear power equipment.

China is currently exporting nuclear technology to Pakistan and Argentina, he said.

“China has assisted Pakistan to build six nuclear reactors to generate 3.4 million KW of power,” he said, without giving details.

China has built two 300 MW reactors at Chasma in Pakistan’s Punjab province followed by two 320 MW units at the same place.

It has also announced plans to construct for the first time two 1100 MW reactors in Karachi.

India and the United States have expressed concern that the two reactors are being built without the sanction of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), which supervises the global civil nuclear technology commerce.

India had secured the NSG waiver in 2008 after the India-US civil nuclear deal.

China signed a landmark deal with Argentina on Wednesday to build a pressurised water reactor (PWR) nuclear power plant there.

“It did not take long for us from introducing this (nuclear) technology to exporting it,” Wang said.

PTI

India And Pakistan Exchange Nuclear Facility “Ghost” Lists

List of nuclear facilities exchanged between India and Pakistan

— By AGENCIES | Jan 01, 2015 02:25 pm

New Delhi : The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday in a statement said that India and Pakistan exchanged the list of their nuclear installations and facilities.

This annual exercise carried out between the two countries is covered under a bilateral agreement that bars them from attacking each other’s nuclear facilities.

This is the twenty fourth consecutive exchange of such list taking place between the two countries, the first one having taken place on January 1, 1992.

The agreement, which was signed on 31 December 1988 and entered into force on January 27, 1991 provides, inter alia, that the two countries inform each other of nuclear installations and facilities to be covered under the Agreement on the first of January of every calendar year.

The two countries also exchanged, through diplomatic channels simultaneously at their respective capital, the list of nationals of each country lodged in the jails of the other country.

The agreement which was signed on 31st May 2008 provides for a comprehensive exchange of list of nationals of each country lodged in other country’s jails twice a year on 1st of January and 1st of July.
– See more at: http://freepressjournal.in/list-of-nuclear-facilities-exchanged-between-india-and-pakistan/#sthash.xSPAWCKo.dpuf

India And Pakistan Exchange Fire Nuclear Capable Missiles

India and Pakistan conduct user trials of nuclear-capable missiles

18 November 2014

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has conducted yet another launch of the Akash nuclear capable supersonic missile from the launch complex III of Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur, Odhisa, India.

Undertaken as part of a routine user trial, the test featured an air force version of Akash, and successfully met its objectives.

Akash mission director G Chandramouli was quoted by The Hindu as saying the missile flew at a supersonic speed over a distance of 14km prior to destroying a target at a low-altitude of 1.2km.
Called para flare, the target was reportedly dropped by a MiG-27 fighter aircraft belonging to the air force.

ITR director M V K V Prasad told Press Trust of India that the trial of was fully successful, saying: “Some more similar trials of the missile will be conducted in this week.”

The trial comes on the same day as the Pakistani military conducted a successful test launch of the upgraded version of its Shaheen I intermediate range ballistic missile.

Carried out from an undisclosed location with impact point in Arabian Sea, the trial was aimed at re-validating various design and technical parameters of Shaheen IA weapon system.

 

“The trial comes on the same day as the Pakistani military conducted a successful test launch of the upgraded version of its Shaheen I intermediate range ballistic missile.”

Shaheen1A missile can carry nuclear and conventional warheads to a range of 900km, whereas Akash is an all-weather surface-to-air missile system capable of engaging aerial threats up to a distance of 25km.

Developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation and Bharat Electronics Limited as part of the integrated guided missile development programme, Akash has already entered into IAF’s operational service, and is awaiting induction into the Indian Army.

Since last week, both Indian and Pakistan have conducted a series of missile launches to evaluate the performance of the domestically built weapons systems.

While India test-fired Dhanush and Prithvi-II ballistic missiles from test ranges in the state of Odhisa, the Pakistani Army conducted operational launch of Shaheen-II intermediate range ballistic missile from an undisclosed location.