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FACTS ABOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS |
A country that wants to have nuclear weapons as a part of its defence forces, has to also build up a lot of accompanying infrastructure. Along with having nuclear weapons, it needs a delivery system and a C3I system (see below). Apart from this hardware, it needs to formulate a nuclear doctrine and strategy. All this constitutes weaponisation.
So nuclear weaponisation is a long process. It starts with the designing and testing of the weapons and delivery systems. This is the stage India is in May 1999. The next step would be actual large-scale production of these systems. Along with this, the C3I has to be set up. The next step is the induction of these systems into the armed forces, the training of the personnel and finally the deployment of the weapons.
A delivery system is the means by which the nuclear weapon is ``delivered" to the victims. It could consist of aircraft carrying nuclear bombs and missiles with nuclear warheads. These missiles could be either launched from land, ships or submarines. Some tactical nuclear weapons are small enough to be made into artillery shells and fired from cannons.
Missiles are the preferred means of delivery for strategic weapons since it is virtually impossible to set up a system of defence against them. They travel so fast that there is no way to reliably detect and shoot them down before they hit the target.
C3I stands for command, control, communications and intelligence. When a country has nuclear weapons and a delivery system, it automatically consitutues a nuclear threat to other countries and therefore increases the chances of being itself subject to a nuclear attack. So it has to set up a complicated system of radars and satellites to keep a constant watch, and to issue a warning of an impending attack. This is the intelligence part.
If such a warning comes, then decisions have to be taken very quickly. First, it has to be decided if the warning is genuine, and if so what should the response be (what missiles have to fired, etc). These orders have to be conveyed quickly and reliably to the personnel who are actually manning the weapons. A procedure to do all this has to rely on a reliable and robust communication network. This procedure has to also ensure that no weapon is fired without proper authorisation or by mistake. This is the command, control and communications aspect.
All this together constitutes the C3I system.
Given the devastation that can be caused by nuclear weapons, it is clearly very important that great precaution be taken to prevent their unauthorised use. PAL, which stands for permissive action links, are systems that make it impossible to activate the weapon without proper authorization. These are electronic devices that prevent the activation or arming of the weapon unless the correct codes are inserted into it. Typically two codes should be inserted, simultaneously or close together. The codes are usually changed regularly.
Apart from preventing unauthorised use, it is equally important to ensure that the weapons do not explode accidentally. For example, if it is accidentally dropped during transportation (such incidents have occurred), it should not explode. One-point safety is a safety criterion to prevent such accidents. It states that if one of the many conventional explosives in the weapon detonates by accident, then the nuclear explosive should not go off.
As mentioned earlier, it is impossible to have a system which can reliably detect and shoot down missiles. Therefore, there is no reliable defence against a missile attack. Since missiles are used to deliver nuclear weapons, there is no defence against a nuclear attack.
The only way to survive a nuclear attack would be to have underground shelters. These shelters would have to have to be stocked with enough food and water to last for about a week, since it would take that much time before the radioactivity levels come down to relatively safe levels. Constructing such shelters for the entire population is impossible, especially in India. It is impossible to protect any population from a nuclear attack.
An analysis of the costs of the nuclear weapons program of the USA by the Brookings Institution revealed that the relative costs of the different components was as follows:
| Development and Production of the weapons | 7% |
| Development and Production of the Delivery systems and C3I | 86% |
| Civil Defence measures | 7% |
An estimate of the Indian programme made by C. Ramamanohar Reddy of The Hindu indicates a similar break-up. He conservatively estimates the total cost of the programme to be about 40,000 crore rupees spread over ten years.
It may be noted that nuclear weapons expenditure is not likely to be shown directly in the government's budget under such a heading, to keep it secret from other countries.
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