Pakistan Nuclear & Missile Development and News

[SABRE]

Originally Posted by dragonfire

On October 8th the Following Newspaper Article was published in Times of India Daily about exercise 'Sudharshan Shakthi'

Pl note the emphasis on the word "anywhere"

So the basic premise is that If there is a nuclear first strike on India (for definition used here, India includes its troops anywhere) there would be massive nuclear retaliation on the attacker. The very fact that IA and IAF are launching a massive exercise of 50K+ troops to practice its combat doctrines are a visible response to questions posed by the Nasr missile.

Rather than looking into Indian military exercises you should visit the Indian Nuclear Doctrine. It clearly states Indian response to WMD attack on mainland India or its troops anywhere will result in massive retaliation. On the other hand, India will not use nuclear weapons first. This fact has not been over looked by Pakistan's nuclear planners, especially while they were coming up with Nasr.

Nasr's objectives are clear = deter battle, in particular any proactive campaign by Indian armed forces. In case Nasr's deterrence fails (that is it is used) and India carries out massive retaliation Pakistan will still have all its strategic nuclear arsenal to response with. In other words it would be Mutual Assured Destruction.

Nasr also provides Pakistan with other advantages. Its smaller size enables it to be stored in hard to find and destroy locations, thus providing a degree of 2nd strike capability. Number of Nasr missiles can be fired before a strategic nuclear strike to create cluster to confuse or preempt India's BMD system.

It is also a technology demonstrator of how far Pakistan has come with warhead miniaturization. Given Nasr's warhead size Pakistan can develop MIRVs, and its ability to be fired from a tube hints that Pakistan could perhaps develop and deploy ship based version as well as develop submarine based missile.

[dragonfire]

Originally Posted by SABRE

Rather than looking into Indian military exercises you should visit the Indian Nuclear Doctrine. It clearly states Indian response to WMD attack on mainland India or its troops anywhere will result in massive retaliation. On the other hand, India will not use nuclear weapons first. This fact has not been over looked by Pakistan's nuclear planners, especially while they were coming up with Nasr.

Nasr's objectives are clear = deter battle, in particular any proactive campaign by Indian armed forces. In case Nasr's deterrence fails (that is it is used) and India carries out massive retaliation Pakistan will still have all its strategic nuclear arsenal to response with. In other words it would be Mutual Assured Destruction.

Nasr also provides Pakistan with other advantages. Its smaller size enables it to be stored in hard to find and destroy locations, thus providing a degree of 2nd strike capability. Number of Nasr missiles can be fired before a strategic nuclear strike to create cluster to confuse or preempt India's BMD system.

It is also a technology demonstrator of how far Pakistan has come with warhead miniaturization. Given Nasr's warhead size Pakistan can develop MIRVs, and its ability to be fired from a tube hints that Pakistan could perhaps develop and deploy ship based version as well as develop submarine based missile.

Agreed with most of the post above except for the 2nd Strike utility of the Nasr Missile, considering its short range of 60 kms and small yield of sub-kiloton it wouldnot be an ideal 2nd strike weapon. Most of my posts above were to discuss the escalation of a conventional conflict to a nuclear one if a nuclear weapon like Nasr was used. It is my hope that the region remains stable and a situation where a nuclear weapons actual usage is never contemplated.

[SABRE]

Originally Posted by dragonfire

Agreed with most of the post above except for the 2nd Strike utility of the Nasr Missile, considering its short range of 60 kms and small yield of sub-kiloton it wouldnot be an ideal 2nd strike weapon. Most of my posts above were to discuss the escalation of a conventional conflict to a nuclear one if a nuclear weapon like Nasr was used. It is my hope that the region remains stable and a situation where a nuclear weapons actual usage is never contemplated.

It may not achieve Counter Value objectives as a second strike weapon but could have Counter Force capability. On the other hand, some important locations in Punjab (Indian), Rajhistan and Gujrat can be vital targets with potentially great economic loss to India.

My personal opinion is that any war that may be considered as Total War by Pakistan may see the use of Nasr and hence escalation. For the rest I pray for what you hope.