Posted on 05/30/2002 7:34:52 PM PDT by AM2000
WASHINGTON: India has up to 150 nuclear warheads while Pakistan could only call upon a third of that total at most, Jane's defense publications said Thursday, as fears persisted the two rivals were slipping towards a disastrous war.
Although both sides have declined to give details of the size or capability of their arsenals since shocking the world with rival nuclear weapons tests in 1998, a survey by Jane's Strategic Weapons Systems has estimated their destructive potential.
India may be able to deploy a 20 kilotonne device from a MiG, Jaguar or Mirage aircraft, and could be able to deliver a bomb of a similar size on Prithvi, Dhanush and Agni ballistic missiles, the article said.
"It is estimated that India probably has between 50 and 150 nuclear warheads available," the survey, released by the London-based group here Thursday, said.
"Analysis from some sources suggests that there is sufficient weapons grade uranium and plutonium available to India to build more warheads."
Pakistan's program is less advanced, but it probably has between 25 and 50 nuclear warheads available, the report said.
"Pakistan's planned yield for its larger nuclear weapons design was 20 to 25 kilotonnes providing a warhead that would probably be fitted to Shaheen and Ghauri ballistic missiles.
Pakistan last weekend triggered international condemnation when it test fired Abdali, Ghauri and Ghaznavi nuclear capable missiles.
It could also probably deploy a smaller device by aircraft, the report added.
The report warned that even 10 to 20 warheads could inflict devastating death tolls on any of India and Pakistan's teeming cities, following other assessments this week that reached a potential of millions of deaths in any nuclear conflict in South Asia.
It also warned that for both sides any nuclear conflict would be essentially self defeating, as bombs would inflict terrible casualties on home populations as well as targeted cities.
"A nuclear strike by either country could turn out to be a pyrrhic victory since, due to the close proximity of several cities on either side of the Indo-Pakistani border, the resulting fallout could easily be blown over the attacking country."
If they're willing to use nukes, then worry over fallout isn't going to cocern them too much. It's better than being at ground zero.
"A nuclear strike by either country could turn out to be a pyrrhic victory since, due to the close proximity of several cities on either side of the Indo-Pakistani border, the resulting fallout could easily be blown over the attacking country."
City-busters are always airbursts to maximize the blast wave and thermal pulse, and airbursts don't produce short-term fallout.
I wonder if this is disinformation, sloppy journalism or the usual lefty propgaganda.
The horror may have a benefit. The Iranians and the Arab states with A-bombs may see the non-benefit of this type of war and stick with the sponsorship of terror groups, rather than trying atomics.
All nukes, no matter where detonated, produce "short-term fallout" (as well as long term).
The Hiroshima and Nagasaki nukes were air bursts, and there was plenty of lethal fallout from them.
Air bursts don't produce as much as ground bursts, it's true, but there's still enough to kill many, many people.
It looks like Janes has 'Gone European,' AKA Politically Correct, on nuclear issues.
Only part of the story.
Just as many will need medical attention, which will be in short supply. At the same time just as many again will need other things such as food. The entire country will have to mobilize just to deal with that, and it won't be over in a week or a year. Any country that takes even 3 hits on pop centers will be out of commission for a long time. 50 or 150 such hits would ruin the country for decades or longer. The immediate death toll is only the beginning, the tip of the ice-berg.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.