Understanding the Arms "Race" in South Asia

[kurup]

So according to the article there is an arms race b/w India and Pakistan but they are running on different tracks and chasing vastly different goals .

India trying to counter the bigger threat to it's north coupled with global ambitions while Pakistan looks like still stuck with India .

Impressive research, a good read in quite a long time.

There is one common trend of weapons development shown by both countries, i.e. both have developed new weapons to ensure their deterrence.

India, having developed advanced enough strategic weapons (the Agni series) against Pakistan, now seeks to develop deterrence at the conventional level too (BrahMos, Shaurya, Prahaar). On the other hand, Pakistan is striving to meet the deterrence requirements at the strategic level (Shaheen-IA, III) and introducing a variety of shorter range platforms (Babur/Ra'ad/Nasr) to counter the developing Indian BMD.

I don't think Shaurya was developed keeping in mind just a conventional role .

IMO it will replace Agni1 in the future .

 

[SirHatesALot]

Pakistan looks like still stuck with India

Well that's understandable since India is their only enemy.

 

[SrNair]

So according to the article there is an arms race b/w India and Pakistan but they are running on different tracks and chasing vastly different goals .

India trying to counter the bigger threat to it's north coupled with global ambitions while Pakistan looks like still stuck with India .



I don't think Shaurya was developed keeping in mind just a conventional role .

IMO it will replace Agni1 in the future .

Their is no arms race between India and Pakistan .It was ended a long time ago .

 

[kurup]

Their is no arms race between India and Pakistan .It was ended a long time ago .

Are you sure about that ??

Well that's understandable since India is their only enemy.

Yep .... true .

 

[SrNair]

Are you sure about that ??



Yep .... true .

Why ?You believes otherwise.

 

[kurup]

Why ?You believes otherwise.

Yes ....... For every acquisition by India , Pakistan tries to counter it by acquiring something = arms race .

 

[SrNair]

Yes ....... For every acquisition by India , Pakistan tries to counter it by acquiring something = arms race .

Question for what extent .When we launched INS Arihant ,they countered it by launching some missile .I think that was Nasr.But when we test AGNI5 their counter would either Nasr or Babur .We took years of effort for launching K 15 .Now they are claiming they can launch Babur from Sub.

I agree there is some Arms race .But it is just a 'Reactive Arms Race'.
A perfect arms was happened in Cold war where rivals was shoulder to shoulder to each other.
In this case like you said they are aim for countering us.But we are just checking our tech not countering someone.

 

[kurup]

Question for what extent .When we launched INS Arihant ,they countered it by launching some missile .I think that was Nasr.But when we test AGNI5 their counter would either Nasr or Babur .We took years of effort for launching K 15 .Now they are claiming they can launch Babur from Sub.

I agree there is some Arms race .But it is just a 'Reactive Arms Race'.
A perfect arms was happened in Cold war where rivals was shoulder to shoulder to each other.
In this case like you said they are aim for countering us.But we are just checking our tech not countering someone.

As the article pointed majority of missile tests by both countries are not tit-for-tat ...... they are planned way earlier .

I never said the arms race is shoulder to shoulder between the two countries but it exists although Pakistan will not be able to match India bullet to bullet .

India is moving ahead with our Program but it in turn compels Pakistan to follow suit .

Something like this ....... US <<<<< China <<<<< India <<<<< Pakistan

As for babur launch from sub , don't you think it's possible ??

 

[faisal6309]

Yes ....... For every acquisition by India , Pakistan tries to counter it by acquiring something = arms race .

Let's compare arm race between US & USSR and Pakistan & India.

1. US and USSR were trying their best to introduce new weapons and were pushing science too far in the ethic to stay ahead.
2. Pakistan and India are trying to introduce new weapons to counter threats from other countries. India from China and Pakistan from India.

Its just like don't try to attack us or we will give you a hard time and not like US and USSR where they were trying to stay number one.

 

[kurup]

Let's compare arm race between US & USSR and Pakistan & India.

1. US and USSR were trying their best to introduce new weapons and were pushing science too far in the ethic to stay ahead.
2. Pakistan and India are trying to introduce new weapons to counter threats from other countries. India from China and Pakistan from India.

Its just like don't try to attack us or we will give you a hard time and not like US and USSR where they were trying to stay number one.

Read the post above yours ....... I never said that Indo-Pak arms race is anything like cold war but it's a fact that there exists an arms race between the both .

 

[faisal6309]

Well that's understandable since India is their only enemy.

Not only India. We have made Israel our enemy because of Arabs and now we have problems with US because of their so called War On Terrorism. We have now problems with Afghans too.

Read the post above yours ....... I never said that Indo-Pak arms race is anything like cold war but it's a fact that there exists an arms race between the both .

The phrase arms race, in its original usage, is a competition between two or more parties to have the best armed forces. Each party competes to produce larger numbers of weapons, greater armies, or superior military technology in a technological escalation.
Arms race - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So I don't think that this whole thing between both of our nation can be called Arm Race.

 

[aazar]

Indian policy makers have been trying to convince global powers that such military modernization is directed to check Chinese influence in South East Asia. This is highly ambiguous as 70 % of Indian military deployments have been made against Pakistani border. Besides that New Delhi has been tremendously increasing fissile material (Plutonium and Uranium) stockpiles that will enable India to build more nuclear devices in coming days. Unfortunately, such developments compel Pakistan to response in order to maintain balance of Power.

 

[kurup]

Not only India. We have made Israel our enemy because of Arabs and now we have problems with US because of their so called War On Terrorism. We have now problems with Afghans too.

All of them are just potential adversaries . OTOH India is your only enemy as of now .

So I don't think that this whole thing between both of our nation can be called Arm Race.

I will like to go with this definition ,

International conflict specialist Theresa Clair Smith, defines the term as the participation of two or more nation-states in apparently competitive or interactive increases in quantity or quality of war material and/or persons under arms .

 

[SrNair]

Indian policy makers have been trying to convince global powers that such military modernization is directed to check Chinese influence in South East Asia. This is highly ambiguous as 70 % of Indian military deployments have been made against Pakistani border. Besides that New Delhi has been tremendously increasing fissile material (Plutonium and Uranium) stockpiles that will enable India to build more nuclear devices in coming days. Unfortunately, such developments compel Pakistan to response in order to maintain balance of Power.

And that would cause a lot of bleeding to Pak economy.Their present effort to match with India already done their economy.

 

[illusion8]

Interesting thread, but outdated. The analysis would run a completely different course in 2014. For e.g, India's Defense pacts with Japan, Australia or the US has nothing to do with Pakistan.