India's nuclear warheads may be subordinate, but the deterrence capability is strong

NEW DELHI: The Indian defence establishment believes its deterrence capability is "robust", designed to ensure "survivability" for retaliatory strikes, as Pakistan continues to remain slightly ahead of India in terms of the number of nuclear warheads, with 140-150 nuclear warheads, and India with 130-140 of India, and China hovering around 280, as per the latest assessment of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

The US and Russia are on another level altogether, the US with 6,450 and Russia with 6,850 nuclear warheads. Together, they account for 92 percent of the 14,465 nuclear weapons across the globe.
The arsenals of the other seven nuclear-armed countries are considerably smaller, but all are either developing or deploying new nuclear weapon systems.

The SIPRI said, "India and Pakistan are both expanding their nuclear weapon stockpiles as well as developing new land, sea and air-based missile delivery systems. China continues to modernize its nuclear weapon delivery systems and is slowly increasing the size of its nuclear arsenal”.
India has no choice but to systematically build nuclear deterrence that is “credible" and capable of inflicting massive damage in a retaliatory strike to any first strike by an adversary, due to being surrounded by threats from China and Pakistan.

Even as it fast supplements its enriched uranium-based nuclear programme with a weapons-grade plutonium one through the four heavy water reactors at the Khushab nuclear complex, Pakistan has deliberately kept its nuclear policy ambiguous to deter India from undertaking any conventional military action.

"For India, nuclear weapons are not war-fighting weapons. But we need credible minimum deterrence, with the certainty of massive retaliation against adversaries," said a source.China remains a major bother with its rapid military modernization, expanding nuclear and missile arsenals. It is estimated that India, which has a largely plutonium-based nuclear weapons programme, aims to achieve a stockpile of around 200 warheads in the decade to come.