it's exactly because of this type of obsession over supercomputers and dependency on its calculcations, the indians aren't able to progress in defense production. there is no substitute for engineering ingenuity and prowess. You need brain-power and ingenuity to design and develop a successful project. you cannot depend on supercomputers to perform an accurate simulation of missile flight or nuclear detonation. if this was the case, the US wouldn't even test its platforms at all, nor would india's projects been complete failures.
to develop a nuclear weapon, you need immense resources at your disposal. it's true, there is the need for high-powered computing, but all the worlds nuclear powers have gotten to where they are without supercomputers. more importantly, you need top-notch theoretical physicists to design your weapons. yields will vary, but if your design gives you an explosion close to the designated yields, you've achieved success. india has not been able to do this, even with its supercomputers. it has exploded fission devices, but it's thermonuclear weapon or hydrogen bomb was a 'dud'. It only gave a yield of 35 kT, which is nowhere near the yield of a working fusion weapon.
now some of you may ask why the US is trying to use supercomputers for nuclear weapons? it's because the US needs to replace its current nuclear weapons stockpiles from the Cold War. to do this, they need to develop a reliable nuclear warhead which they can't do without testing. therefore, they are trying to develop more powerful supercomputers to simulate a nuclear explosion as closely as possible. however, they are running into numerous problems and delays. first of all, a supercomputer can never accurately simulate a nuclear explosion. basically, there no fail-proof way of designing a reliable weapon without actually testing it.
thus, the US conducts sub-critical tests in Los Alamos every year to get data, to better verify their designs. however, there are calls for actual testing within the department of defense, even though the US has banned nuclear testing. this shows us, exactly how reliable supercomputer simulations are. nothing beats the actual testing of a nuclear weapon. There is pressure from some important figures in France, to conduct an actual nuclear weapons test, since they need to develop new warheads for their next line of SLBM's.
back to india, the indians will not be able to design something successful by relying on supercomputers and CFD simulations. whether it's systems integration, flight, there is always hard "open-air" testing required, to see if what you've design on computer and paper using your brain power, works. a supercomputer cannot accurately simulate what oscillations will occur within an object during flight. when it comes to missile technology, ballistic or cruise, Pakistan is ahead of india. Pakistan has more than 70,000 scientists and engineers, very capable working on its strategic programs. currently, some of that progress is in jeopardy since the govt. cut off some funding. however, we know that Pakistan is working on longer-ranged missiles for its strategic forces.
