HISTORY
In 1939, on a visit to India, Bhabha realized the lack of facilities to run nuclear research in India and decided to build an institute for nuclear research along with his good friend J. R. D. Tata. With a total of 1240 US dollars in funds from the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, the Government of Bombay and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Bhabha commenced work in the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) on June 1st, 1945. Bhabha’s initial plan for nuclear power was not to build weapons for war. He said, “When nuclear energy has been successfully applied for power production in, say, a couple of decades from now, India will not have to look abroad for its experts but will find them ready at hand.” Nuclear research in the TIFR started in the early 1950’s with the one-million volt Cockroft-Walton accelerator. Initial experiments in TIFR led first by Bhabha and then by Bernard Peters was devoted to cosmic ray research and balloon-based experiments. Around the same time Bhabha simultaneously started the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), which was a policy-making group that also initiated surveys of India’s natural resources, especially uranium and thorium-bearing minerals. In 1955 the AEC went for a joint venture with the United Kingdom, to build a Swimming Pool Reactor called Apsara. The Apsara reached criticality on August 4, 1956. The Apsara was followed by a series of developments. India collaborated with Canada to build the Canadian-Indian Reactor (CIR), inspired by the NRX on Chalk River, which gained criticality in July 1960. Later the USA joined hands with Indians to modify the CIR reactor, now known as the CIRUS reactor. The Trombay center built a plant to process crude thorium hydroxide, obtaining uranium fluoride as a by product. TIFR was recognized as the National Center of the Government of India for Advanced Study and Fundamental Research in Nuclear Science and Mathematics in 1955. Since then TIFR has expanded its research to include fields like theoretical and nuclear physics, condensed matter physics, computer science, molecular biology and radio astronomy.
INDIAN NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAMME
The nuclear movement started by Homi J. Bhabha later inspired the use of nuclear power to build weapons for protection of the nation. This was predicted in June 1946 by Jawaharlal Nehru, “As long as the world is constituted as it is, every country will have to devise and use the latest devices for its protection. I have no doubt India will develop her scientific researches and I hope Indian scientists will use the atomic force for constructive purposes. But if India is threatened, she will inevitably try to defend herself by all means at her disposal.” The Indian Nuclear Programme started as a three-stage effort. In stage 1 natural uranium fuelled pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWR) produce electricity while generating plutonium-239 as by-product. Fast breeder reactors (FBRs) in stage 2 uses a mixed oxide (MOX) fuel made from plutonium-239 recovered by reprocessing spent fuel from the first stage, and natural uranium. Stage 3 consists of an Advanced Nuclear power system with a self-sustaining series of thorium-232-uranium-233 fuelled reactors. After India’s loss to China in a brief Himalayan border war in October 1962, the New Delhi government decided to use nuclear power to develop weapons as a way to deter Chinese aggression. The first nuclear test, known to the world as Smiling Buddha, took place in 1974 in Pokhran in Thar desert. This 8 kiloton weapon created a crater of 47 meter radius and 10 meter depth. In 1998, together the Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BAARC) and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) launched the second nuclear weapons test called Pokhran II. A total of five devices were tested, three on 11th May and two on 13th May. The three devices on 11th May included a 45 kT thermonuclear warhead using nuclear fusion, a pure fission device of 12 kT yield designed to be dropped from an aircraft and an experimental fission device of 0.3 kT yield. The two devices on 13th May were a 0.5 kT and 0.3 kT experimental fission device each. Since then India have evolved and has managed to build over 120 warheads.
NUCLEAR ARSENAL
Expected to have enough material to build approximately 2100 warheads, India currently has a nuclear triad of weapons; air-launched nuclear weapons, land-based ballistic missiles and sea-based ballistic missiles. All India’s weapons are plutonium-based made from weapons-grade plutonium produced in the CIRUS reactor or the Dhruva heavy-water reactor. Currently India has around 25 nuclear reactors. India has four main delivery systems for their nuclear weapons: Ballistic missiles, submarines, cruise missiles and strategic bombers. Most of India’s ballistic missiles are developed as part of it ambitious Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP), managed by the DRDO. The Indian Armed Services (IAS) deploys three kinds of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles under the control of its Strategic Forces Command (SFC): the short, medium and intermediate range ballistic missiles. The short range missiles have a range of less than 1000 km and includes the Prithvi series, the Prahaar, the Dhanush and the Shaurya.
| Missile | Description | Range |
| Prithvi-I | Originally built for small warheads. Uncertain if it is nuclear capable or conventional | 150 km |
| Prahaar | Currently under development. Carries a nuclear or conventional payload. | 150 km |
| Prithvi-II | Failed most of its originals tests but since 2016 the weapon has been deemed successful. | 250-350 km |
| Prithvi-III | Once development is complete, it will be able to carry a single nuclear or conventional warhead. | 350+ km |
| Dhanush | Liquid-fuelled and ship-launched, first successfully tested on Oct. 5, 2012. | 350+ km |
| Shaurya | Hypersonic land-based variant of the nuclear-capable K-15 submarine-launched ballistic missile; can carry a single conventional or nuclear warhead | 700+ km |
The medium range ballistic missiles range between 1000 to 3000 km and can usually carry a single nuclear or conventional warhead. They Agni series is a part of medium range ballistic missiles.
| Agni-I | The range can be extended by reducing payload | 700-1200 km |
| Agni-II | Unclear operational status, last tested in April 2013. | 2000+ km |
The Agni series also two intermediate range ballistic missiles with range between 3000 to 5500 km and two intercontinental ballistic missiles with range greater than 5500 km.
| Agni-III | Introduced in military service in 2012, fewer than 10 launchers. | 3200 km |
| Agni-IV | Road- and rail-mobile missile, most recent successful test in January 2017. | 4000 km |
| Agni-V | Under development, believed to not have the capability to carry multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) warheads | 5200 km |
| Agni-VI | Nuclear-capable ICBM under development, may be armed with MIRVs. | 10,000 km |
The Indian Naval Service has two sea-based delivery systems for nuclear weapons: a submarine-launched system and a ship-launched system. India’s first missile submarine is the INS Arihant which became fully operational in 2016. In November 2017 India deployed its second Arihant-class submarine, the Arighat. Currently DRDO has a high priority project where India is developing its SLBM capabilities with its K-series missiles.
| K-15 | Sagarika is under development, has no MIRV capabilities | 700 km |
| K-4 | Under development, carries conventional or nuclear payloads | 3500 km |
| K-5 | Under development, Capacity to carry 4 MIRVs | >6000 km |
India also has three cruise missiles: the BrahMos, the Brahmos-II and the Nirbhay. The BrahMos is a nuclear-capable land-attack cruise missile jointly developed between Russia and India. With a flight range between 300 to 500 km, it is one of the very few missiles that are capable of being launched from land-based, ship-based, submarine-based, and now air-launched systems. The Brahmos-II is a hypersonic version of the BrahMos that is currently under development. After India’s induction into the MTCR in June 2016, the range of the missiles have been increased from 290 km to 600 km. The Nirbhay is a nuclear-capable land-attack cruise missile under development with an estimated range of 800-1,000 km.
Apart from the above mentioned missiles, India has a bunch of nuclear-capable strategic bombers. A French plane, the Mirage 2000H can be used to deliver gravity-based nuclear bombs. The Jaguar IS fighter bombers have been modified to deliver nuclear payloads. After June 2016, the Russian aircraft Sukhoi-30 MKI completed its first flight equipped with the nuclear-capable BrahMos and an additional 40 such aircrafts are expected to be modified to carry the BrahMos. Lastly, India plans on upgrading its aging air force with newer aircraft like the French Rafale fighter jet, that can potentially take over the air-based nuclear strike role.
SHOULD YOU FEAR THE INDIAN NUCLEAR PROGRAM?
Based on the World Nuclear Industry Status Report of 2017, India is third in the world, in terms of number of nuclear reactors. The Indian Nuclear Doctrine is largely based on an unofficial document released in 1999 by the National Security Advisory Board which outlines the deployment of the nuclear triad- aircraft, mobile land-based missiles and sea-based assets, designed for “punitive retaliation.” According to Indian officials, the large size of our nuclear stockpile is simply for maintaining a “credible minimum deterrence” with abilities which enable an “adequate retaliatory capability should deterrence fail.” The draft nuclear doctrine described the first use of nuclear weapons as “constituting a threat to peace, stability and sovereignty of states.” In January 2003 India reiterated its loosely defined nuclear doctrine to add the “No First-Use” policy where it would not use nuclear weapons except to retaliate against a nuclear attack. Additionally, the Government of India reserved rights to use nuclear weapons in response to biological or chemical weapon attacks. In 2010, the then national security advisor Shivshankar Menon described India’s nuclear doctrine as “no first use against non-nuclear weapon states”, which implied that a first use by India of a nuclear weapons was possible against another nuclear-armed competitor.
Currently India operates seven nuclear-capable systems: two aircraft, four land-based ballistic missiles, and one sea-based ballistic missile and four additional systems are in dynamic phase development. The long-range land and sea-based missiles will possibly be deployed within the next decade. Apart from existing warheads India has been estimated to have produced 600 kilograms of weapons grade plutonium enough to build 150-200 nuclear warheads. Most of the plutonium is generated from the 40 MWt CIRUS and the 100 MWt Dhruva, which began operations in 1963 and 1988, respectively. Based on the capacity factor and operating availability, the CIRUS reactor was estimated to produce 4 to 7 kg of weapons-grade plutonium annually; the corresponding figure for the Dhruva reactor is 11 to 18 kg. Despite all the recent expansions in India’s nuclear stockpile, their retaliation time to attacks is extremely poor. India stores its nuclear warheads in a disassembled state, keeping the fissile core separate from the warhead package, which greatly increases the time required to deploy weapons.
India has multiple nuclear cooperation agreements with different countries like the U.S., the U.K., Russia, France, Namibia, South Korea, Mongolia, Canada, Argentina, Kazakhstan, and Japan. India has been in a non-attack agreement policy with Pakistan since january 1991. India is currently emphasizing on future strategic relationships with China. Although India has been a part of all these agreements, they have refused to be a part of the two most important nuclear agreements: The Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. India actively participates in international nuclear trades. In 2013, India signed a bilateral safeguard agreement with Canada, for trade in nuclear materials and technology used in IAEA safeguard facilities, which led to Canada eventually agreeing to a five year deal to supply India with uranium to fuel civilian nuclear reactors. In 2014 Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Indian PM Narendra Modi signed a nuclear cooperation agreement allowing Australia to export uranium for India’s civil nuclear program. In January of 2015, India and the United States released a joint statement announcing that the two nations will work towards India’s phased entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), the Wassenaar Arrangement, and the Australia Group. After having multiple joint discussions with different nations India has started to focus more on using nuclear energy as a renewable form of energy. 27 years of failed experiments have finally resulted in India coming up with a Fast Breeder Reactor. Fast breeder reactors differ from conventional nuclear plants as the neutrons that sustain the atomic chain reaction travel at higher velocities. This type of reactor is capable of generating more fuel that it consumes, a behavior typically made possible by elemental uranium. India hopes to use the excess fuel for commercial purposes.