The government has approved the construction of two indigenously designed nuclear attack submarines and is expected to ink contracts next month to procure 26 naval variant of Rafale jets and three Scorpene submarines, Navy Chief Admiral Dinesh Tripathi said on Monday.
"We estimate that Pakistan now has a nuclear weapons stockpile of 130-140 warheads. This stockpile exceeds the projection made by the US Defense Intelligence Agency in 1999 that Pakistan by 2020 would have 60-80 warheads," said the report released last month.
The warmth and respect for India were evident wherever I went and noticed how most Latin Americans have Indian gurus either directly or online and yoga was very much in vogue, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
The new warhead, due to be operational in five years' time, will be used to replace Trident missiles on submarines.
The spectre of Pakistan's nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorist organisations has once again come to the fore. Western commentators are calling for plans to secure or destroy the nuclear warheads in the event of a meltdown. It would be in India's interest to provide the maximum possible assistance for such a move, says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd)
Pakistan's atomic weapons stockpile has jumped to an estimated 70-90 warheads from a previous figure of 60 and it is also developing two new types of nuclear-capable cruise missiles, according to a top American scientist.
India is not converting all its weapons-grade plutonium into war heads, two top American nuclear scientists have claimed, estimating that it currently has 80 to 100 nuclear warheads for its emerging triad of air, land, and sea-based nuclear-capable delivery vehicles.
Among Pakistan's neighbouring countries, India will be particularly vulnerable if Islamist terrorists and their Al Qaeda and Taliban brothers ever lay their hands on Pakistan's nuclear warheads as it is one of the nations that the Al Qaeda has named as an enemy. Being a contiguous land neighbour, it is also easier to target even if sophisticated delivery systems like ballistic missiles are not available
This is the first time in decades that China has made its flight test of an intercontinental ballistic missile public in an apparent show of strategic deterrence, State-run China Daily reported.
United States President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev on Monday signed a landmark deal in Moscow committing the two Cold War rivals to a new, legally binding arms-control treaty and resume military cooperation, as they promised to "reset" their damaged bilateral ties.
"We estimate that Pakistan now has a nuclear weapons stockpile of approximately 170 warheads. The US Defense Intelligence Agency projected in 1999 that Pakistan would have 60 to 80 warheads by 2020, but several new weapon systems have been fielded and developed since then, which leads us to a higher estimate," the Nuclear Notebook column published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on September 11 said.
Iran is poised to produce its first nuclear warhead and will be able to do so within a year of an order from its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a media report said on Monday. Quoting Western intelligence sources, The Times daily claimed that Iran has perfected the technology to create and detonate a nuclear warhead and is merely awaiting the green signal from its Supreme Leader.
A United States university students' project has stumbled upon figures that China's could have 3,000 nuclear warheads, many times larger than the well established estimates of arms-control experts, sounding alarm bells in Pentagon.
Pakistan's atomic arsenal probably consists of between 90 to 110 nuclear warheads, a latest Congressional report has said, informing the American lawmakers that Islamabad is interested in concluding a nuclear cooperation deal with the US, which would require their approval.
China has more than 500 nuclear bombs in its arsenal and is developing new Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) that will significantly improve its nuclear-capable missile forces, the Pentagon said on Thursday.
In a statement on behalf of the EU, Britain offered new negotiations meant to defuse tensions over Iran's insistence that it must be in full control of uranium enrichment-- a possible pathway to nuclear arms.
With the fight now having been taken to the seizure of nuclear plants, it is one more warning to Europe that this prolonged war could end up with disastrous consequences, observes Rashme Sehgal
By the time the enemy aircraft is 50 km away, the Akash-NG's computers have calculated the launch trajectory and impact point and launched the missile.
According to the 'Military and Security Developments involving the People's Republic of China' report 2023: "Since early May 2020, sustained tensions along the India-China border have dominated the Western Theater Command's attention."
When the armoured vehicles arrive in this 'kill zone', each PALM 400 picks out its target and fires an armour-penetrating projectile, penetrating it from the top where its armour protection is the least.
'China is in the middle of a substantial expansion of its nuclear weapon arsenal, which satellite images indicate includes the construction of over 300 new missile silos,' SIPRI's statement noted.
According to the Pentagon report, the PLA is creating options for dissuading, deterring, and defeating external intervention in the Indo-Pacific region.
The Russian defence ministry said that Ukrainian forces hit six rockets of HIMARS at the temporary deployment point of one of the units of Russian armed forces in Makiivka region of Donetsk.
The defence ministry said the missiles destroyed the targets with precision at two different ranges.
Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt said the major defence equipment that were imported included helicopters, aircraft radars, rockets, guns, assault rifles, missiles and ammunition.
Putin said work would be completed on building storage units for tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus on July 1, a move he likened to US nuclear deployments in Europe.
The test-firing of the missile from the Abdul Kalam Island off Odisha coast came amid India's lingering border row with China.
'This cannot be credibly explained away by referring to a "technical glitch".'
According to the report, Russia tops the table with 6,375 warheads, followed by the United States with 5,800, and the United Kingdom with 215 warheads.
The rocket systems that were tested at Pokharan field firing ranges were manufactured by a private industry following transfer of technology by the Defence Research and Development Organisation.
The Indian Army on Tuesday issued a request for information for procuring integrated drone detection systems.
The idea of weaponization got a fillip from an unexpected quarter. In the last week of October 1985, Rajiv met US President Ronald Reagan. Reagan told Rajiv, 'Pakistan has already made a bomb.' When Rajiv started talking about disarmament, the US president cut him short, 'Don't talk theory, think of your own protection.'
The US drone strike that killed Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri on the balcony of a safe house in downtown Kabul points to the use of secret Hellfire missiles by the CIA as there was no explosion and, according to American President Joe Biden, "no civilian casualties" either.
Last week, the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) held a ceremony marking the induction of the Chinese-made fighters into its arsenal.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday monitored drills of the country's strategic nuclear forces involving multiple practice launches of ballistic and cruise missiles, the Kremlin said.
Rediff.com present a comprehensive listing of the nuclear nations and their collective and active stockpile.
The bodies were found with their hands tied, blindfolded and shot at close range in the back of the head.
Like the Shourya and Prahar missiles, the Pralay is powered by conventional solid fuel, and its payload is designed to carry only a conventional warhead.
China is expected to boost its nuclear arsenal after President Xi Jinping's remarks at the key Congress of the ruling Communist Party in Beijing for the first time that Beijing will establish strong strategic deterrence, experts have said.
We bring forth to our readers the list of nations sitting on a nuclear stockpile, based on the study findings:
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