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N-capable Agni-III ready, but aircraft remain first choice
Published on Thu, May 08, 2008 at 00:06, Updated on Thu, May 08, 2008 at 00:35 in India section
Tags: Agni-3, Fighter Aircrafts , New Delhi
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New Delhi: India on Wednesday test-fired its most potent nuclear-capable missile Agni-III, which has a range of 3,500 km, indicating its growing strategic reach. There were inferences that India now has a greater capability to deter China.
But the former chief of India's Strategic Forces Command has done a reality check on the missile euphoria. Air Marshal TS Asthana has dropped a bombshell declaring that the Indian armed forces still regard fighter aircraft as the only reliable delivery system for nuclear weapons.
"Today it is the air which would be the greater reliance factor as far as India is concerned, the answer to that would be yes," Air Marshal Asthana says.
Fighter aircraft are widely considered more vulnerable to being shot down than a missile.
Hence, an aircraft-based nuclear-strike capability is highly suspect.
But the contradictory missile skepticism of the military lies in the minimal nature of India's deterrence posture.
Both Agni-I and Agni-II, believed to be the mainstay of India's deterrence, were declared operational on the basis of just two tests each. So user confidence is still in its infancy.
If the military leadership still believes that fighter aircraft are the only assured mechanism to deliver nuclear weapons on an enemy, perhaps the rigour of testing needs to be increased manifold to address the confidence deficit in India's strategic missiles.
The missile development agency - Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) - accepts that there's a confidence problem.
"It is the level of confidence which is to be enhanced (and) that is what we are trying to do," Dr W Selwamurthy, Chief Controller, DRDO, says.
Nuclear deterrence of an adversary, it is said, lies in the credibility of a nation's weaponry.
But it appears that the custodians of India's nuclear weapons themselves need some convincing.
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URBANEYE
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The only reason Air Marshall Asthana makes the case for using fighter aircraft as a nuclear delivery system is to
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Do our defence planners think that organising an airstrike after the chaos of an enemy nuclear strike on our command
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The entire article is based on putting a spin on the Air Marshal's remarks, putting words in his mouth and
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