Pakistan's nuke arsenal bigger than India's

ganesh177

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NEW DELHI: After racing ahead of India in ballistic and cruise missiles, with covert help from China and North Korea, Pakistan seems to be surging ahead on the nuclear front too.

A series of recent estimates by international nuclear watchdogs and reputed thinktanks hold that Pakistan has a total of 70 to 90 warheads compared to India's 60 to 80. China, in comparison, has around 240 warheads.

Even as global fears about the possibility of jihadis gaining access to Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, enriched uranium or technical know-how continue, its deadly inventory is only going to expand in the coming years.

Pakistan, after all, is supplementing its ongoing enriched uranium-based nuke programme with a weapons-grade plutonium one. Its two new heavy-water reactors being built at Khushab nuclear facility, with China's help, are clearly geared towards producing weapons-grade plutonium, as reported by TOI earlier.

In its latest annual world military expenditure report released on Wednesday, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said Pakistan's weapons-grade plutonium production would jump seven-fold with the two new reactors at Khushab nearing completion.

"Our conservative estimates are that Pakistan has 60 warheads and could produce 100 nuclear weapons at short notice," said SIPRI, adding that Islamabad had earmarked its US-supplied F-16 fighters, Ghaznavi and Shaheen missiles as its nuke delivery systems.

India's nuclear weapons programme, in turn, has largely been plutonium-based, basically centred around the Pu-239 produced in research reactors like Cirus and Dhruva at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre.

Nuclear arsenals of India, Pakistan, and even China, pale in comparison to the gigantic ones of the two former Cold War foes, US and Russia. SIPRI estimates there are a whopping 22,600 active, inactive and stored nuclear warheads around the globe, enough to destroy it several times over.

While Russia has 12,000 warheads, 4,630 of them "deployed" ones, US has 9,600, which includes 2,468 of them operational. The two have, however, recently decided to slash their inventories by nearly one-third.

France comes third with 300, followed by UK with 225. Israel, which like India and Pakistan is not a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, completes the list of the eight countries with nuclear weapons, with an arsenal of 80 warheads. Then, there is also North Korea, which has produced "enough plutonium for a small number of warheads", SIPRI said.

All these figures are not exact because countries keep their nuclear weapons programmes in thick cloaks of secrecy, which is only now being lifted by countries like US and UK.

India has been concerned about Pakistan's drive to bolster its nuclear arsenal over the past few years. While India has a clear and declared `no-first use' nuclear weapons doctrine, Pakistan has kept it vague to use as a tool to offset India's conventional military superiority.

Moreover, there is continuing controversy in India over whether the country has a credible thermonuclear or hydrogen bomb, given that a few experts contend the 45-kiloton thermonuclear device tested under the Pokhran-II tests in 1998 was "a fizzle".

The armed forces also remain quite worried about the lack of SLBMs (submarine-launched ballistic missiles) and ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) in their armoury, which are needed for a credible deterrent and for robust second-strike capabilities against both Pakistan and China.

At present, only the short-range Prithvi missile (150-350km) and the 700km range Agni-I have been fully operationalized till now. Agni-II (over 2,000km) and Agni-III (3,500km) are still in the process of being inducted by the Strategic Forces Command. India's most ambitious strategic missile Agni-V, with a 5,000km range, in turn, will be tested for the first time only by early-2011 or so.

Nuclear Warheads (Source: SIPRI)

Russia: 12,000
US: 9,600
France: 300
UK: 225
China: 240
Pakistan: 70-90
Israel: 80
India: 60-80
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...al-bigger-than-Indias/articleshow/6005178.cms

Besides article this caught my attention. =omg=
After racing ahead of India in ballistic and cruise missiles, with covert help from China and North Korea.
 

AJSINGH

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so what pakistan has larger nuclear arsenal, it takes only 12 nuclear warheads to take down pakistan.
 

Sabir

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Outsiders wont know the exact size of nuclear arsenal- be it of Pakistan or that of India. Same is true for Missiles. Is there any sources to tell confidently about the credibility of Pak or Chinese missiles? Dont waste your sleep on it.
 

ajtr

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These are all estimated figures based on the estimated size of the fissile material deduced from the number of reactors in the country.
 

maomao

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These are old speculations; whenever such estimates are shared with world, what follows is - US bombing the hell out of the country in prime focus of such reports. Looking at the inward collapsing pakistan, we can easily gauge what is foretold for pakistan in the near future!
 

Yusuf

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The report is old. Just like to add that what the report says is nukes ready. What it does not say is how much fissile material is on standby that could be converted to bombs pretty quickly. I have seen in diff reports that india has over 2000kgs of fissile material which could be converted to hundreds of bombs. India chores not to do it. Plus indian nuke establishment is very secretive. If it could hoodwink the west before testing on both occasions, then we can be assured that they are doing a good job of hiding the real arsenal.
 

charan

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Totally bull crap..UK has 225 warheads and China has 240. Yet they placed Uk ahead of china!!! I guess this talks about the credibility of the auther and the article LOL.
 

SHASH2K2

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Do we really need 100 nukes to annihilate pakistan?
 

shuvo@y2k10

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these are not international expert but assumption of some crap american security analyst.how do the come to know how many warheads do india and pakistan possess which is usually the depest secrets of any country.
 
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These experts need to look at countries plutonium reserves to get a better idea of nuclear warhead numbers , this idiot should look at reserves for India before making a claim like this.
 

Singh

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Pakistan's increasing nuclear stockpile will bolster Pakistani Military and raises the possibility of increased Pakistani backing for Terrorism in India or even smaller conventional wars a la Kargil.
Basically the Pakistanis are carrying out their version of Cold Start that is push India just short of a nuclear/ full war, so they will increase support for terrorism in India, increase infiltration, and even launch daring attacks on Indian territory stopping just short of a war all the while talking with India and making peace overtures.
 

Singh

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Do we really need 100 nukes to annihilate pakistan?
Depends on the yield, targets and platforms. Even 5=6 can do the job.

these are not international expert but assumption of some crap american security analyst.how do the come to know how many warheads do india and pakistan possess which is usually the depest secrets of any country.
SIPRI based in Stockholm is not "an" american security analyst.

so what pakistan has larger nuclear arsenal, it takes only 12 nuclear warheads to take down pakistan.
Pakistan is ~fourth the size of India so it will take just 48 warheads to take us down.

Outsiders wont know the exact size of nuclear arsenal- be it of Pakistan or that of India. Same is true for Missiles. Is there any sources to tell confidently about the credibility of Pak or Chinese missiles? Dont waste your sleep on it.
Even if 1 Pakistani nuclear tipped missile lands on India ...

These are old speculations; whenever such estimates are shared with world, what follows is - US bombing the hell out of the country in prime focus of such reports. Looking at the inward collapsing pakistan, we can easily gauge what is foretold for pakistan in the near future!
Pakistani army is an army that has a country and their main base is Punjab and that is not going anywhere nor are their nukes meant for India.
 
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we are the biggest Heavy water producers in the world if we used it to make hydrogen bombs I wonder how the numbers will look??
 

Singh

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we are the biggest Heavy water producers in the world if we used it to make hydrogen bombs I wonder how the numbers will look??
Our hydrogen bomb was a dud and the moot point is not how badly we will devastate Pak in case of a nuclear war.
 
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Our hydrogen bomb was a dud and the moot point is not how badly we will devastate Pak in case of a nuclear war.
They are building up and getting a nuclear deal so we have to prepare for the worst eventuality, the government in the future will most likely be more anti-India not less. Our scientist still have faith in our hydrogen bomb?

http://www.india-today.com/itoday/12101998/cover2.html
 

Singh

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They are building up and getting a nuclear deal so we have to prepare for the worst eventuality, the government in the future will most likely be more anti-India not less. Our scientist still have faith in our hydrogen bomb?

http://www.india-today.com/itoday/12101998/cover2.html
The Chinese arsenal is several thousand times larger and more dangerous than Pakistan's, I hope we are prepared keeping in mind the Chinese and not the puny Pakistanis.
Our headache is how to bully Pakistani security establishment into submission and NOT how to annihilate Pakistan and survive without half the country.
 
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The Chinese arsenal is several thousand times larger and more dangerous than Pakistan's, I hope we are prepared keeping in mind the Chinese and not the puny Pakistanis.
Our headache is how to bully Pakistani security establishment into submission and NOT how to annihilate Pakistan and survive without half the country.
I agree that it is not wise to have a nuclear conflict especially between 2 countries that share the same water supply, the Chinese are the ones pushing the pakistani nuclear agenda, our nukes and missiles should all be designed with China in mind first.
 

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