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| India-Pakistan |
| India Working on Sea-Based Nuclear Missiles |
| 2007-10-14 |
| NEW DELHI — India is drawing closer to a sea-based nuclear strike capacity. The hull of its homegrown nuclear-powered submarine, the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV), is under construction by the Larsen & Toubro (L&T) shipyard and is slated for sea trials in 2009, Indian Navy sources said. Land-based tests of some systems are already completed. The classified program is being run by the state-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) with help from Russia. India also is buying two Russian nuclear-powered subs. The DRDO is developing nuclear-capable cruise missiles with assistance from Israel, defense sources here said. “Reports indicate that a 1,000 kilometer-range cruise missile is being developed,” said Gurpreet Khurana, a defense analyst with the Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA) here. “Some reports have named it Sagarika, but in my view, Sagarika is most likely a ballistic missile being developed for the ATV.” The Navy is building submarine facilities at its new base at Karwar, adding to the current sub base at Vishakapatnam and looking to add another base on the eastern coast. Zachariah Mathews, a retired Navy commodore and consultant with Dua Consulting here, said the Navy’s nuclear needs include nuclear-capable ICBMs, nuclear-powered subs, a strategic command, safe storage and maintenance of payloads, radiation monitoring and control capability, isolation and treatment of crew when exposed to radiation, disposal and recycling of nuclear wastes, nuclear-power training for sailors and more. A Strategic Command has already been set up to take control of the nuclear assets. India’s 2004 nuclear doctrine, published by the outgoing National Democratic Alliance government, pledges no first use of atomic weapons, but calls for the acquisition of sea-based missiles along with land- and air-launched ones for deterrence. “The sea leg of the nuclear triad is best provided by ballistic missiles positioned on a nuclear submarine, because this leg is clearly the least vulnerable, and therefore, the most survivable,” Khurana said. “India has very rightly opted for this course for its sea-based leg of the nuclear triad, as is evident from the ATV project.” |
| Posted by:john frum |