NEW DELHI – India has maintained a strong Nuclear defence force to wardoff any misadventure on its borders. While China in the north and Pakistanon its western side continue to build and acquire new weapons, India toohas built a formidable arsenal including nuclear weapons although New Delhihas officially stated that it has a “No First Use” policy.
According to the latest data by Stockholm International Peace ResearchInstitute (SIPRI), an international think tank on conflict, armaments, armscontrol and disarmament, India spent $63.9 billion on its defence forces in2017, an increase of 5.5 per cent compared with 2016. But the leader of thepack is China, the second largest spender globally after the USA. Chinaincreased its military spending by 5.6 per cent to $228 billion in 2017 andits share of world military expenditure has risen from 5.8 per cent in 2008to 13 per cent in 2017.
India has completed its nuclear triad by ensuring a mix of nuclear-tippedmissiles, bombers which can carry the nuclear bomb and submarine-launchednuclear missiles for second strike capability.
India is estimated to have between 100 and 120 nuclear devices while Chinahas almost 250 nukes and Pakistan is also ahead with around 130 bombs. Butsince the 1980s, India has developed a series of weapons.
Several Indian Air Force fighter-bombers like Sukhoi Su-30 MKI, MiG-29s andMirage 2000s have the capability to carry nuclear bombs. The nuclear-tippedmissiles in India’s arsenal consist of the Agni and Prithvi series.
The Agni series has a wide range of missile starting with Agni-I with arange of 750km to 1250km and going up to the intercontinental ballisticmissile Agni V which can hit a target between 5,500km to 8,000 km. With thesuccess of nuclear-tipped Agni V, entire China has come under the range ofIndian defence forces.
The Indian Navy has too has the indigenously built nuclear submarine INSArihant which carries nuclear-tipped missiles, giving India an assuredsecond strike capability.
The next boat of the Arihant class, Aridhaman, too is undergoing trials andwill soon join the Indian Navy with a bigger and deadlier arsenal. All thesubmarines of the Arihant class are ship submersible ballistic nuclearclass (SSBN).
The nuclear submarines will be equipped with the K-15 (Sagarika) and K-4missiles. While Sagarika missile had a range of 750km to 1,500km and cancarry a warhead of 1 tonne, the K-4 is a much bigger missile with range of3,500km and a warhead capacity of 2.5 tonnes.