INDIA'S NUCLEAR TRIAD NOT QUITE FULLY IN PLACE BUT THE INDIAN NAVY CAN GO NUCLEAR IN A HEARTBEAT

THE INDIAN NAVY CAN GEAR UP FAST FOR NAVAL NUCLEAR WARFARE

                   
Indian Navy's Club Missiles
Can Be Fitted With Nuclear Warheads

The Deccan Herald recently reported, quoting well placed sources, that a  nuclear weapon capability for the Indian Navy on short notice can be accomplished by Club Missiles which are nuclear-capable and have already been deployed into the Navy, .   Presently it is not known whether the Indian Navy has already been armed with nuclear weapons. But it appears certain that the navy can be nuclear armed in short order.   The 300-km range Club missiles were purchased from Russia last year and are capable of carrying nuclear warheads. In addition the Indian Navy is working on a second naval nuclear armament project the  Brahmos missile, a collaboration with Russia.   The BRAHMOS  is described as a "high-versatility" missile and is expected to have a range of 280 km. While India's army and the air force have nuclear weapons, the navy officially, has been working to gain nuclear capacity to complete India's nuclear triad which assures second strike capability, a must have for a nuclear armed state with a "no first use policy".    The Indian Nuclear Doctrine envisions the  building up of a triad of nuclear weapons,  capable of launching nuclear weapons from land, air and sea.  The triad-capability will be complete when the Navy acquires nuclear capability, which may or may not ever be publicly announced. However,  the capability for rapidly arming the navy with nuclear weapons is already here.  According to most of the Indian naval periodicals that we monitor, the navy is some time away from completing the third leg of the triad with all of the features that the navy wants..   Admiral Madhvendra Singh, who recently took over as the new Chief of Naval Staff, at a Press conference refused to confirm or deny whether the Navy had nuclear weapons.   Admiral Singh said: "I can neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons on warships. Any country that espouses the doctrine of no-first-use of nuclear weapons must have a second strike capability. And one of the triad is at sea... the most powerful leg of the triad is in the Navy and is hidden under water and moving." Our guess is that the Indian Navy can sling nuclear weapons right now and that their capacity to do so will improve over time. The fact that this capability involves Russian equipment doesn't bother us in the least. The U.S. has held India at arms length for too long over her development of nuclear weapons, a project that we certainly weren't going to help with.  "Non proliferation" is a good thing for the world generally, but often for nations living in range of powerful and unfriendly, untrustworthy nuclear armed neighbors, not being nuclear armed often seems suicidal.  India is viewed by the Dragon as a rival, and we all know how the Middle Kingdom deals with rivals. So India armed itself with nuclear weapons, get over it. India is a stable democracy, a growing economy, and proven trustworthy state. It is a "no first use" nuclear power, and frankly if it wasn't under its own nuclear umbrella probably, given its non aligned status, would have already been subjected to a massive conventional attack with the constant threat of  her enemies going nuclear if they found India getting the upper hand.   So they obtained their equipment from Russia , get over it. The United States wasn't going to provide any assistance. At least the Russians are an old nuclear power and they make decent quality equipment. At least India had the decency and the common sense not to rely on North Korea. We here at AAB are far more worried about the Dragon's avowed goal of establishing it's dreamed of "String of Pearls" in the Indian Ocean. Read that as step 1 in the Dragon's plan of  becoming the dominant Indian Ocean power. We think the Dragon not only speaks with forked tongue but sees with a myopic eye. We really like the idea of a dragon eating tiger.