Indian nuclear forces, 2012

[kṣamā]

Here many members are discussing on the track that " India has so much fissile material hence more nukes ", sorry to break the flow but its false. Though its true that the actual nos of nukes (operational and on-standby) can never be fully estimated due to the simple fact that there is a tight lipped secrecy for the whole process.

Also the fact that India is using majority of it Plutonium and Uranium isotopes for power generation (unlike Pakistan) results in lesser nukes. Civilian grade plutonium and uranium is quite easily manufactured and reaped of benefits than to further enrich and store as a weapon.

 

[lightoftruth]

80-120 is an underestimation by all means ,it has its political importance but strategically our doctrine is illogical if the figures are that low . for immediate second strike capability the need of deployed nukes is the basic one keeping in mind the threat perception and growing strength of their nuclear arsenal "the minimum credible deterrance" is updated with time and conditions which can be seen in modernization plans too .if we r increasing our delivery platforms that automatically brings the need of more warheads.

 

[Wet Shirt Contest]

Think Tanks are Doing there job, Just a Hint, They Maybe Not even close to exact number of Operational (Not stand-By) nukes India posses, the design details of the TN device have not been made public as per my info. No worries

 

[surya kiran]

There are quite a few steps to go before deploying.

1. Have fissile material
2. Make bomb of fissile material
3. Mate bomb to delivery mechanism

So, India may have fissile material to develop more bombs, but, may not have built the same. But, the more important thing is for the first time in Indian nuclear weapons strategy, we will have a deployed weapon system (bomb mated with delivery mechanism) once the SSBN is fully activated. This is the critical part, more than how many bombs we will have and a clear break from the early strategy of having nuclear weapons stored separately from the delivery system.