How Pakistan secures its nuclear weapons

[gaurysh]

Mr remember the 1987 Indo-Pak tention when President Zia-ul-Haq suddenely visted India n tention was finished

Do u knw wht was reason due to which tention was finished?

I tell u when Zia-ul-Haq returned to Pak in 1987, at indian airport he said to Indian PM that "There r abt 50 muslim conturies if pakistan is destroyed Islam will live alive in othr conturies but on the other hand if India is destroyed Hinduism will remain no more

HE SAID IT IN FRONT OF U??

 

[PeacefulIndian]

It is as possible as some Hindu extremist or some American survivalist/neo-Nazi elements gaining access to their respective nuclear assets.

There are effective background checks, profiling and monitoring that goes on for people in the program.

Your point "when your nukes fall..." is typical of the paranoia about this capability. Have you seen any cases of Pakistani military defecting over to the other side? It has not happened and neither will it happen so why do people automatically assume that some folks on the inside will immediately become turncoats and hand these things over to the Taliban on a platter?

The delivery systems are with a different formation, the weapon codes are secured via the standard 2-man rule employed in the West etc. etc. So this talk of this and that falling in the hands of the Taliban is misplaced.

There is a bigger concern about Russian weapons falling into the hands of the arms dealers in CARs and being shipped to the highest bidder but because Pakistan is the punching bag for all, this stuff is talked up by every Tom, Dick and Harry regardless of how clueless they are.

It is as possible as some Hindu extremist or some American survivalist/neo-Nazi elements gaining access to their respective nuclear assets.

Do you completely deny that your ISI was accused of having links with extremist Taliban? Shah Mehmood Quareshi also indicated that ISI was supposedly being 'cleansed'. What makes you think that your administration & Taliban do not have any links at all? What is happening in FATA, Swat is probably a good example. You are not being 'defeated', you are 'giving in'.

Your point "when your nukes fall..." is typical of the paranoia about this capability. Have you seen any cases of Pakistani military defecting over to the other side?

I did see them give in. Without any resistance.

The delivery systems are with a different formation, the weapon codes are secured via the standard 2-man rule employed in the West etc. etc. So this talk of this and that falling in the hands of the Taliban is misplaced.

I already asserted that I am not concerned about techincal aspect of it. This does not work out if it is an insider job. Simple.

There is a bigger concern about Russian weapons falling into the hands of the arms dealers in CARs and being shipped to the highest bidder but because Pakistan is the punching bag for all, this stuff is talked up by every Tom, Dick and Harry regardless of how clueless they are.

Gives you all the more reasons to introspect. Why every Tom, Dick & Harry is worried about Pakistani nukes? Care to think?

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Do you completely deny that your ISI was accused of having links with extremist Taliban? Shah Mehmood Quareshi also indicated that ISI was supposedly being 'cleansed'. What makes you think that your administration & Taliban do not have any links at all? What is happening in FATA, Swat is probably a good example. You are not being 'defeated', you are 'giving in'.

The links maintained by the ISI in the past (and in the present) were part of a policy and part of what any good intelligence agency would do - ensure it has contacts with any entity of concern/interest.

That is a completely different scenario from a massive defection in favor of the Taliban, against the Pakistani State, government and senior leadership.

In essence the only way this would happen is if the senior military leadership defected to the Taliban cause, which remains just as unlikely as the senior Indian leadership defecting to the RSS cause and becoming complicit in a Muslim genocide in India.

The Prime Minister and Foreign Minister were correct - the restructuring or 'cleansing' process was initiated under Musharraf, and rigorous checks and accountability of the ISI have continued and will continue. But you should also remember that this 'restructuring' is being carried out by the senior Military leadership - the same leadership whose 'defection' is essential for any possible 'nukes in Taliban hands' scenario to be feasible.

Why every Tom, Dick & Harry is worried about Pakistani nukes?

That's the point the Pakistanis always make - there isn't a good reason at this point for that hysteria and paranoia.

 

[sergente rehan]

Always the same BS by western media, specially indian media which will better point out their problems rather then that of Pakistan.

It's normal for Pakistan to face all this propaganda because we are the only Muslim world nuclear power.

Come on everybody it's not a joke when you talk about Pakistan Nuclear Arsenal. Pakistan is doing all the necessary to protect it so it's not a problem!

 

[IceCold]

This thread is such a waste, does any one from the Pakistani side seriously believe that we can convince them otherwise, sorry to burst your bubble but they are not here to get convinced no matter how hard one tries and that is why whether it is on this very forum of western media you keep on hearing the same old BS. Its better to let them think what they want and let them have an opinion of their own, rather then wasting bandwidth convincing them.
Since people here have a higher opinion about Musharraf, i would like to shift their attention to a specific reference given in his book "In the line of fire" about how the west in particular the US sees Pakistan's nuclear program, even after that if we are trying to convince them otherwise, then we are only fooling our selves.

 

[luoshan]

US can make sure Pak nukes are secure: Obama - US - World - The Times of India
US can make sure Pak nukes are secure: Obama
30 Apr 2009, 1236 hrs IST, Chidanand Rajghatta, TNN

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama on Wednesday said Washington "can make sure that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is secure," even as he

expressed grave concern over the deteriorating situation in the militancy-stricken country.

At a White House press conference to mark his first 100 days in office, Obama expressed confidence about US control over Pakistan's nuclear weapons, perhaps through military-to-military cooperation, in the face of extremist advances in the country. In the process, he also hinted that Washington had contingency plans to handle the situation if it went out of Islamabad's hands.

Asked if he could reassure the American people that, if necessary, America could secure Pakistan's nuclear arsenal and keep it from getting into the Taliban's hands, Obama replied: "I'm confident that we can make sure that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is secure, primarily, initially, because the Pakistani army, I think, recognizes the hazards of those weapons falling into the wrong hands."

 

[ironman]

10,000 men protecting N-assets: official

By Kamran Yousaf
Thursday, 28 May, 2009 | 04:16 AM PST |

ISLAMABAD: A senior official of the country’s premier defence nuclear establishment has said that a large force of nearly 10,000 people is in place to ensure security of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal and western fears about the safety of the weapons are unfounded.

Air Commodore Khalid Banuri, who is director of arms control and disarmament affairs at the Strategic Plans Division (SPD), said that Pakistan’s ‘command and control structure’ for the weapons was better than that of many other nuclear states, and many countries and their experts had officially acknowledged this.

In a rare interview with DawnNews, Air Commodore Banuri described as ‘preposterous’ western media reports that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons might fall into wrong hands — terrorists or other non-state actors. ‘The intent clearly appears to be mala fide,’ he said. ‘It does not make sense for anyone to continue to harp on this despite having understanding of how Pakistan does its work.’

He said: ‘We have taken stringent measures which are legislative, institutional, procedural and administrative. We have ensured all aspects of nuclear capability.’

Elaborating, he said that a large force of highly trained and professional people — in fact over 10,000 people were looking after the security of the nuclear assets.

Answering a question, Air Commodore Banuri said Pakistan constantly maintained contact with a number of states on the nuclear issue.

‘We have interaction with several countries, including the US, EU and Japan, and the IAEA. What we have with the US, this is clearly known…. Our interaction with the US is based on the two basic principles, non-intrusiveness and our right to pick and choose.’ However, he made it clear that such interactions did not mean that Pakistan had granted access to anyone to its nuclear assets.

DawnNews TV will air a special report titled ‘Who’s afraid of the bomb’ at 3.30pm on Thursday, and the detailed interview of Air Commodore Khalid Banuri at 11.30pm on Friday.

 

[RazorMC]

Pakistan's nukes are safe no matter what other media say...
Most of the time they are commenting on Indian media's opinions...
It's all about communication...

There are many Indians working in Western media as anchors etc. who is to say they dont influence topics.

Look at facts, not opinions.

 

[Arsalan]

how pakistan secures its neuclear weapons:

perhaps this article gives you an idea!!!

http://www.defence.pk/forums/wmd-mi...-saved-thirty-year-old-secret.html#post386394

 

[jawadqamar]

Taking out Pak nukes


By Irfan Asghar | Published: May 28, 2009

On May 14,Fox News reported that the US has got a comprehensive plan to infiltrate into Pakistan and secure its nuclear arsenal if there appeared any possibility of the country falling under the control of Taliban. Reportedly the operation would be conducted by Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) - a component unit of the Special Operations Command, which got its birth on Dec 15, 1980 in the wake of the failure of Operation Eagle Claw and has got a history of conducting highly classified operations.

Besides hunting down terrorists in Afghanistan, the JSOC is said to have got another important mission of securing Pakistan's nukes. What followed hard on the heels of this news was a report by the analysts of the Institute for Science and International security (ISIS) that Pakistan is expanding nuclear sites as part of the effort to bolster the destructive power of its atomic arsenal. Satellite photos have also been issued to give credence to this claim. Moreover, the ISIS says that as Pakistan army is waging a war against Taliban militants in the northwest, so the security of its nuclear assets remains in question.

If we have a non-partisan approach and candid analysis of the situation, it comes out loud and clear that all this is a part of the game to create panic, horrify the international community about Pak nukes and translate the heinous objectives of encroaching the nuclear sovereignty of Pakistan into reality. But this is a fantastic scheme. Pak nukes are not placed in open air under any shed without any custody that JSOC will come into action and take control of them. They have been secretly protected. Despite making efforts to monitor the whereabouts, the US intelligence agencies cannot for the life of them trace all the sites of the storage of nukes in Pakistan. This has also been conceded by the CIA director Leon Panetha that the US does not know the location of all of Pakistan's nuclear weapons. Most importantly, a fully vigilant army is there to safeguard nukes, and foil any mischevious attempt in this regard.

Interestingly, the US intelligence agencies have not got any impressive record of doing things. They badly failed to pre-empt the 9/11; they are running around in circles to capture Osama bin Laden and they have failed to track down the links of terrorists. It is a stupidity of the highest order to think that JSOC and US intelligence agencies, which have failed to control the nuclear program of Iran at its infancy stage, will be capable enough to undo the nuclear sovereignty of Pakistan-a fully fledged nuclear state.

If wishes were horses, beggars might ride. To expect from US intelligence agencies, which are writhing with embarrassment after repeated failures to change the regimes in Iran and North Korea, that they will locate Pakistan's nuclear sites and enable the JSOC to carry out operation is chimerical. Where was the JSOC ,when North Korea on different pretexts at various periods of time violated the US-sponsored nuclear disablement agreements and carried out missile experiments.


America is facing stark failure in Afghanistan. Where is the JSOC? Why it has failed to exterminate the Taliban factor, when the US soldiers are obliged to commit suicides out of failure and frustration. The New York Times has reported that Taliban are using US manufactured arms against American troops. Why the JSOC and intelligence agencies have failed to preempt the leakage of arms from Afghan forces to the Taliban.

The point of fact is that the US is entirely baffled at this time and acting out of desperation. The glaring example of this is that it is blowing hot and cold nowadays. Even the US president does not seem to have thinking of his own and is parroting the line of anti-Pakistan lobbies. The writer suggests the US officials that they should stop worrying about Pak nukes and start taking care of their own country which is faltering, in a precarious condition and approaching the inevitable fate of collapse. As far as Pak nukes are concerned, Pak army is fully equipped and bright eyed in the context of putting the extremists to rout and securing its nuclear arsenal. The spectacular example is the ongoing operation in Pakistan. Pakistan army is getting success in the field in which the US-led NATO forces have miserably failed to achieve anything worthwhile.

The US media, international institutes and so-called pundits or analysts have got a track record of creating hype, laying it on thick and raising ulterior speculations about sensitive issues to cater to the needs of certain powerful lobbies. Pakistan is a country of 170 million enthusiastic people and 620,000 strongly professional army, having the wherewithal to forestall the unholy objectives of its rival lobbies and forces.

The writer is a foreign affairs analyst

E-mail: irfanasghar99@yahoo.com

 

[Arsalan]

Well for security in war time the nukes are stored in deep underground tunnels at ---------
Today i visited the factory where gates of these tunnels are being made and boy they were awesome!
Heavy sheets of metal and --------- are used in the gates! The gates are made strong enough to withstand a direct hit from a ----- pound bomb. I think it won’t be appropriate to mention the bombs size it can withstand due to security reasons but tell you what, it is a huge load of explosives, more then anything that can ever come and hit it directly!
The tunnels themselves are deep down the earth and no bunker buster or any sort of bomb can damage the tunnel.
All this is first hand information and I hope that is useful for you people!

Regards!

 

[Arsalan]

i am sorry as i am not able to post the details because of security reasons but one thing is for sure, you guys may now be confident that no one can destroy our nukes via an offensive move for sure, Inshallah!!!
our nukes are very safe! as safe as it can get with any other neuclear nation! perhaps better than many (even America where every now and then the jets are reported flying with nukes without formal permission or knowledge)



regards!

 

[XYON]

Well for security in war time the nukes are stored in deep underground tunnels at ---------
Today i visited the factory where gates of these tunnels are being made and boy they were awesome!
Heavy sheets of metal and --------- are used in the gates! The gates are made strong enough to withstand a direct hit from a ----- pound bomb. I think it won’t be appropriate to mention the bombs size it can withstand due to security reasons but tell you what, it is a huge load of explosives, more then anything that can ever come and hit it directly!
The tunnels themselves are deep down the earth and no bunker buster or any sort of bomb can damage the tunnel.
All this is first hand information and I hope that is useful for you people!

Regards!

Just to make a correction here, not all Pakistan strategic assets which includes warheads and carriers are stored in underground bunkers. At the mating sites scattered throughout Pakistan, most of the carriers are parked inside ordinary storage air conditioned shelters that are camouflaged. These scattered sites have no visible entry points from main routes. Any passerby will have no clue about the beaten path off the road and where it leads. The security check posts are also well within these unmarked paths! So the only traffic on this road may be that of an employee of SPD or a spy!

The bulk of the warheads are stored at some strategic locations using the same principals as that of storage of any conventional or unconventional ammunition. Please remember that warheads are generally inert and are do not explode secondarily owing to some aerial bomb being dropped on them. They are only activated once the special arming key is entered after mating with the carrier. So they are pretty safe in these especially built hardened storage sheds.

 

[tamir]

Just to make a correction here, not all Pakistan strategic assets which includes warheads and carriers are stored in underground bunkers. At the mating sites scattered throughout Pakistan, most of the carriers are parked inside ordinary storage air conditioned shelters that are camouflaged. These scattered sites have no visible entry points from main routes. Any passerby will have no clue about the beaten path off the road and where it leads. The security check posts are also well within these unmarked paths! So the only traffic on this road may be that of an employee of SPD or a spy!

The bulk of the warheads are stored at some strategic locations using the same principals as that of storage of any conventional or unconventional ammunition. Please remember that warheads are generally inert and are do not explode secondarily owing to some aerial bomb being dropped on them. They are only activated once the special arming key is entered after mating with the carrier. So they are pretty safe in these especially built hardened storage sheds.

Correct me if I am wrong... just a logical question I have in mind. Wouldn't the warheads be stored underground to avoid radioactive detection?

Secondly, there is no convincing the Western people or media on our nuclear security. When someone asks me this STUPID question, my answer is equally stupid. My usual reply is that ..... if you can manage to get your pickup truck into the ammo warehouse and load the "warhead" onto your pickup truck, your all set.

99% of the time I get this look of horror and reply "are you serious?"

 

[Arsalan]

Just to make a correction here, not all Pakistan strategic assets which includes warheads and carriers are stored in underground bunkers. At the mating sites scattered throughout Pakistan, most of the carriers are parked inside ordinary storage air conditioned shelters that are camouflaged. These scattered sites have no visible entry points from main routes. Any passerby will have no clue about the beaten path off the road and where it leads. The security check posts are also well within these unmarked paths! So the only traffic on this road may be that of an employee of SPD or a spy!

The bulk of the warheads are stored at some strategic locations using the same principals as that of storage of any conventional or unconventional ammunition. Please remember that warheads are generally inert and are do not explode secondarily owing to some aerial bomb being dropped on them. They are only activated once the special arming key is entered after mating with the carrier. So they are pretty safe in these especially built hardened storage sheds.

correct, i agree with you on this! i stated that most of our nukes are stored there in underground tunnels! not all of them! also my bad that i should have classifed that by nukes i point to there nuclear warheads only and not the carriers. so to clarify, the nuclear warheads are stored there! offcourse they cannot go bang on arieal attack but are DESTROYED if bombed! this wont start a chain rection but the bombs will be destroyed so to protect them all these measures are taken. in simple words we can say that the warheads are there without there fuse so cannnot go boom by themselves or during a bombing atack. however the security methods i have mentioned in my earlier post keep them safe even in a full arieal attack as i stated that the tunnels and the gates are able to handle direct hit of whatever that can come and hit them!

i hope you understand my point now! anyway thanks for your information!

regards!