India, China, Pak N-arsenal grows
India adds 6, Pak 5 and China 30 warheads
India, China and Pakistan continued to grow their nuclear arsenal in the region in 2020, a report by Stockholm-based think tank SIPRI has claimed.
Among the three countries, China saw the highest addition of 30 nuclear warheads in 2020, taking its total nuclear stockpile to 350. India added six and Pakistan five nuclear warheads. However, China and Pakistan continue to have more nuclear weapons than India.
Pakistan has 165 nuclear warheads against 156 with India, according to the SIPRI report.
“China is in the middle of a significant modernisation and expansion of its nuclear arsenal, and India and Pakistan also appear to be increasing the size of their nuclear weapon inventories,” said the report.
Overall, Russia leads the pack with 6,225 nuclear warheads followed by the US with 5,550.
There was a decrease in the number of nuclear weapons in the world from
13,400 in 2019 to 13,080 in
2020 as the USA and Russia continued to reduce their overall nuclear weapon inventories by dismantling retired warheads.
However, despite this overall decrease, the estimated number of nuclear weapons currently deployed with operational forces increased to 3,825 from 3,720 last year. Around 2,000 of these — nearly all of which belonged to Russia or the USA — were kept in a state of high operational alert, said SIPRI.
The report said that while initially India’s nuclear systems were focused on Pakistan, the country now appears to place increased emphasis on China, with the development of longer-range missiles capable of targeting all of China.
It said that India has assigned its nuclear weapons to a maturing nuclear triad of aircraft, land-based missiles and ballistic missile submarines.
The report said that the remarks in recent years by Indian defence ministers have created doubts about India’s commitment to the no-first-use policy.
“Recent scholarship and government statements have called that policy into further question, with some analysts suggesting that ‘India’s NFU' [no-first-use] policy is neither a stable nor a reliable predictor of how the Indian military and political leadership might actually use nuclear weapons," said SIPRI. It said that there are suggestions that some portions of India’s arsenal, particularly those weapons and capabilities designed for retaliation against Pakistan, "are now kept at a much higher state of readiness, capable of being operationalised and released within seconds or minutes — not hours, as has been previously assumed”.
The report said that aircraft are the most mature component of India’s nuclear strike capabilities. "It is estimated here that approximately 48 nuclear bombs are assigned to aircraft. The Indian Air Force (IAF) has reportedly certified its Mirage 2000H fighterbombers for delivery of nuclear gravity bombs. It is widely speculated that the IAF’s Jaguar IS fighter-bombers may also have a nuclear delivery role," said the report.
It said that the Indian Army’s Strategic Forces Command operates four types of mobile nuclearcapable ballistic missile: the short-range Prithvi-II
(250 kilometres) and AgniI (700 km); the mediumrange Agni-II (>2,000 km); and the intermediaterange Agni-III (>3,200 km). Two new and longerrange land-based ballistic missiles are in development: the Agni-IV (>3,500 km) and the Agni-V
(>5,000 km). A variant with an even longer range, the Agni-VI (6,000 km), is in the design stage of development.
Unlike the other Agni missiles, the Agni-V is designed to be stored in and launched from a new mobile canister system, which will reduce the time required to place the missiles on alert in a crisis.
OVERALL, RUSSIA LEADS the pack with
6,225 nuclear warheads followed by the US with
5,550.