Pakistan leaps ahead
www.indiatimes.com/Pak-leaps-ahead/photostory/6008218.cms Pak leaps ahead
Pak nuke arsenal bigger than India's
After racing ahead of India in ballistic and cruise missiles Pakistan seems to be surging ahead on the nuclear front too, according to the recent statistics of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). A series of recent estimates by international nuclear watchdogs and reputed think tanks hold that Pakistan has a total of 70 to 90 warheads compared to India's 60 to 80. China, in comparison, has around 240 warheads. Photo: AFP
Pak leaps ahead
Pakistan's technical know-how continues
It is said in report that even as the world fears about the possibility of jihadis gaining access to Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, Pakistans enriched uranium or technical know-how continues. Pakistan, after all, is supplementing its ongoing enriched uranium-based nuke programme with a weapons-grade plutonium one. Its two new heavy-water reactors being built at Khushab nuclear facility, with China's help, are clearly geared towards producing weapons-grade plutonium
Pak leaps ahead
Pak's horde of cruise missiles
Islamabad was developing an air launched cruise missile Ra'ad and had also carried out four tests of its sub-sonic cruise missile Babur. But SIPRI said it was not clear whether these missiles would be developed to carry nuke warheads. Pak's Khusab I reactor was giving the country 10 to 12 kgs of weapons grade plutonium. Islamabad had earmarked 32 US supplied F-16 fighters along with short-range Ghaznavi I and Shaheen I missiles as the delivery systems for its nukes. Photo: AFP
Pak leaps ahead
India lags behind
New Delhi had only short-range surface to surface Prithvi I (with the range of up to 500 kms) and medium-range Agni I (upto 700 kms) missiles deployed as nuclear weapon delivery system. The Swedish institute said India's two other missiles Agni II (with the range of 1,200 kms) and Agni III (3,000 kms) were still under development, though Agni II had been handed over to the Army for user trial. Photo:
Pak leaps ahead
US, Russia have gigantic nuclear arsenals
Nuclear arsenals of India, Pakistan, and even China, pale in comparison to the gigantic ones of the two former Cold War foes, US and Russia. There are a whopping 22,600 active, inactive and stored nuclear warheads around the globe, enough to destroy it several times over. While Russia has 12,000 warheads, US has 9,600. The two have, however, recently decided to slash their inventories by nearly one-third. France comes third with 300, followed by UK with 225. Photo: AFP
