Ballistic Missile Defense an Essential Element of India's Strategic Calculus
By Yogesh Joshi | 20 Apr 2012
Since 2006, India has embarked on a robust ballistic missile defense (BMD) program aimed at a two-tier defense. In that time, the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) has conducted a number of successful missile-interception tests, with the latest coming in February. India's plan for missile defense, however, dates back to the early 1980s, when it started its Integrated Missile Development Program (IGDMP).
IGDMP envisaged an array of offensive missile platforms, such as the Prithvi and Agni ballistic missiles, as well as the development of defensive missile platforms, such as the Akash surface-to-air missile system. As currently conceived, the Indian missile shield revolves around the Prithvi and Akash missiles, with the Prithvi designed to intercept incoming missiles at 30-50 miles (exo-atmospheric interception) and the Akash designed to operate at a range of 10-20 miles (endo-atmospheric interception).
Though much of India's missile defense program has been an indigenous effort, foreign partners have also played a significant role, with Israel in particular a major collaborator. Israel has been especially helpful in providing state-of-the-art radar technologies for early detection of hostile projectiles. To bolster its missile-tracking capabilities, India has imported two Green Pine radars, which Israel uses in its Arrow missile defense system. Moreover, India has also developed the Swordfish tracking and fire control radar in collaboration with Israel and France. India had previously acquired Phalcon AWACS from Israel at a cost of $2 billion, providing it with a low-level detection capability for hostile missile platforms and considerably enhancing the response time for missile interception.
As for the U.S., its position on selling BMD technology to India has evolved over the years. Initially reluctant to share technological know-how, the U.S. is now actively urging India to buy the most advanced American BMD platform -- the Patriot Advanced Capability 3 (PAC-3) -- and is even open to joint development.
Partners aside, the bigger question is what purpose BMD serves in India's strategic calculus. Many strategic analysts contend that instead of bolstering India's security, New Delhi's pursuit of BMD might jeopardize its defense. This is primarily because India's pursuit of strategic technologies, including BMD capabilities, has created extreme paranoia in the Pakistani defense and security establishment. Pakistan has already drastically increased its nuclear arsenal in recent years in response to India's BMD efforts. According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Pakistan will soon have the world's fifth-largest inventory of nuclear weapons, and a recent report by Reaching Critical Will contends that Pakistan is spending more than $2.5 billion on nuclear weapons annually.
Moreover, Pakistan is also trying to develop low-yield nuclear weapons and has shown an increasing interest in plutonium-based warheads, which are smaller in size and easier to camouflage. Islamabad is also developing nuclear cruise missiles that can evade missile defense and is currently equipping its existing missiles with multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles and other decoys.
Pakistan's nuclear cooperation with China has also seen a resurgence. China has promised to build two additional reactors at Pakistan's Chasma nuclear site without taking into consideration the Nuclear Supplier Group's new guidelines on technology transfers, a worrisome development for New Delhi given China and Pakistan's history of clandestine nuclear transfers.
India, on the other hand, sees BMD as an essential element of its national security and foreign policy, with one clear motivation to pursue it being the threat of unintended use of nuclear weapons in the subcontinent. This is most relevant with regard to Pakistan, whose nuclear doctrine delegates substantial autonomy in the use of nuclear weapons to its military commanders. There is also a constant threat of Pakistani terrorists or radical elements overpowering Pakistan's strategic military assets...
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WPR Article | Ballistic Missile Defense an Essential Element of India's Strategic Calculus
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