Indian Nuclear and Missile Tests A Shocking Reality

The failed nuclear tests at Pokhran between 10th and 13th of May 1998 proved to be extreme blunder of the Indian History now. The impact and the set backs of these failed tests caused extreme frustration and unwilling changes in many plans which India was banking on since long.  

The main motive of 1998 nuclear tests by India was to completely push Pakistan to back foot. India was all set to give a clear message to the world that it has achieved complete supremacy in the South Asian region due to its Military might and with a stockpile of effective Nuclear Weapons. A huge country with enormous economic growth and unmatchable power of Conventional and Nuclear weapons could have brought great influence to India in this region and probably a confirmed permanent seat in the UN Security Council. There were also false claims made by RAW and Military High ups of India which led the then Prime Minister Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee to had been completely convinced that Pakistan was unable to initiate its own nuclear test in fear of International reaction. But, the most hyped tests were not only proved to be failed but subsequent tests by Pakistan on 28thMay 1998 completely shut the beak of the Indian ostrich. India still curses the loss of huge edge it got before Pokhran tests in 1998 which not only changed the power scene of this region but also threw India into many doubts about its own nuclear capabilities. Intelligence inputs suggest that India is facing another blow due to its failed Missile program which is also creating big head ache for the Military high ups. India is now on an emergency plan with the help of Israel to restructure its Missile program which was previously based on Russian technology. The Missile program now needs a serious upgrading and revamping because of growing challenges in the region. It is also widely believed that among many factors which are believed to be like American pressure and the fear of lack of International support, the possible attack on Pakistan after 26/11 Mumbai terrorism were backed off only due to sorry report of Indian Nuclear capabilities and spineless Missile system. It is also believed that it was after 26/11 when the reports of failed tests of Pokhran came into reality otherwise it was an internal secret before. Following is the complete report appeared on famous Indian News website of Times of India which clearly shows the frustration and complete helplessness of the Indians on the grave matter of dud nuclear tests. Times of India - Srinivas Laxman, TNN 18 September 2009, 01:44am IST //MUMBAI: Eleven years after India tested nuclear bombs in the deserts of Pokhran, embarrassing details about the test fizzling out have exploded into a full blown controversy with top nuclear scientists on Thursday demanding that the government institute an inquiry to determine whether the test failed. Former nuclear czars said they were ashamed that information had been hidden. Three former nuclear leaders -- M R Srinivasan, P K Iyengar and A N Prasad said in the wake of revelations by K Santhanam, project leader for Pokhran II, the government must order a peer review into the yield of the thermonuclear test of May 1998. Santhanam went public first on August 26, saying that the yield from the test was far lower than what prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government claimed. On Thursday, in a newspaper article he disclosed embarrassing details saying the test was a failure because the yield was only 25 kilotons, nearly half of what the scientists had then claimed. He said that a meeting of scientists discussed the failure soon after the test and decided to hide it. He also pointed out that the failure meant that India now did not possess a credible nuclear deterrent, indicating that warheads on India's long-range missile could have far less punch than expected. R Chidambaram, former chairman of Atomic Energy Commission and the architect of the nuke tests; Anil Kakodkar, then director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, and APJ Abdul Kalam who led the team from Defence Research and Development Organisation, have insisted the device operated according to its design specifications and the yield was 45 kilotons.At a meeting on September 5, the AEC dismissed the first statements made by Santhanam, saying through different types of analysis it was established that the yield of the thermonuclear test was 45 KT. Now, even scientists in Barc, the nation's top nuclear weapon establishment, doubt the claim. While saying he was surprised by Santhanam's article, M R Srinivasan, former AEC chairman, told TOI it was time for both Chidambaram and Kakodkar to clarify the situation. ``In such circumstances I think a peer review is certainly warranted,'' he said. At the same time he said he still stood by the official position and would support Chidambaram and Kakodkar regarding the yield of the thermonuclear test. ``A lot of information has been published and is on record. So I have really no reason to disbelieve at this stage either Chidambaram or Kakodkar on this issue. However, because of the current controversy, I think the best recourse would be for both of them to clarify the position through a peer review,'' he added. Former Barc director, A N Prasad, who has all along maintained that the thermonuclear test was anything but a success, said, ``The painful fallout of this episode is that the credibility of the nuclear scientific community and the respectable name of Barc is being damaged by a few at the top.'' In a direct attack on Kalam and Chidambaram, Prasad said: ``If all that Santhanam has written is true, then people occupying high places have misled the country. If all the data about the thermonuclear test has been held by one man (Chidambaram), then how can it be scientifically contested or debated? He has kept it under wraps.'' Stressing that there should be a probe by a committee constituted by the government, Prasad said that the team should comprise those having serious doubts about the yield of the test as well as experts who can include former nuclear scientists who have been raising their voices. ``It should not consist of only yes men. It should consist of those who are knowledgeable, who have the capacity to investigate such a serious matter,'' he said.``If this committee concludes that the thermonuclear test had completely failed then the government has played a major fraud on the people of this country,'' he said. Asked if the AEC itself can investigate, he replied: ``It has credibility, but no expertise.''Another former AEC chief, P K Iyengar said, ``The government should undertake an active investigation immediately following the statements made by Santhanam in the article. I am feeling really ashamed.'' Regarding a revelation in Santhanam's article that the thermonuclear device had not yet been weaponised like the fission devices, he said: ``How will they do it if they are doubtful about the yield? This itself is a clear indication that the test was not a complete success.''Both Iyengar and Prasad said the disclosures by Santhanam, that there was no disturbance to the shafts at ground zero, was also proof that the test was unsuccessful.// The above report is clear evidence that it can be possible that the actual yielded result of the tests could be lower than 25 KT, throwing Indian scientists into complete confusion and had badly shattered their confidence too. It is bad luck for the Indians that the report about the dud tests came at a point when India was all set to teach Pakistan a lesson of the lifetime after 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Amid all these circumstances the failure of Missile tests also aggravated the situation and made Indian Army think that in case of any serious confrontation between India and Pakistan, India would face unbelievable embarrassment if the Military would fail to hit the potential targets and loose the war heads too due to the crashing of Missiles in the middle of its approach or missing the targets completely. In the following report India clearly admits the failed cruise missile test //(AFP) –Jan 21, 2009 NEW DELHI (AFP) — A supersonic cruise missile jointly developed by Russia and India failed to hit its target in a test previously reported as successful, Indian military scientists said Wednesday. The Defence Research and Development Organisation, which Tuesday claimed the test of the BrahMos missile had been a "total success," said the missile had flown only in the general direction of its target. "The missile performance was absolutely normal till the last phase, but it missed the target, though it maintained the direction," BrahMos project chief Sivathanu Pillai told the Press Trust of India. The eight-metre (26-foot) missile weighs about three metric tonnes and can be launched from land, ships, submarines or aircraft, travelling at a speed of up to Mach 2.8. It has a range of 290 kilometres (180 miles) and is designed to carry a conventional warhead. The missile was fired from the Pokhran range in the western desert state of Rajasthan, bordering Pakistan, that was also the site of India's nuclear tests in 1998.The Times of India newspaper Wednesday suggested the failure was a result of an attempt to configure the missile to carry a nuclear warhead. Pillai did not comment on the newspaper's report but said his scientists were trying to debug the guidance system of a missile that had been tested 20 times in the past eight years."A new software used for this mission will be revalidated through extensive simulations and a flight trial will be carried out in a month's time to prove the augmented capabilities of the missile," he said.India and Russia -- its largest military supplier -- hope to mass produce the BrahMos for export. Nuclear-armed India, the largest arms buyer among emerging countries, has already begun arming its navy and army with the BrahMos as a tactical battlefield weapons system.The missile is named after India's Brahmaputra River and Russia's Moskva River.// Further to complete shock to the Indians another Missile test this time of Agni II also failed miserably to break the bone of India's hopes to claim itself to be self reliant in the missile technology. Times of IndiaTNN 24 November 2009, 12:28am IST //BALASORE: India's nuclear-capable intermediate range Agni-II missile, test-fired for the first time after sunset on Monday, reportedly failed to get the desired results. The Army test-fired the surface-to-surface Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) from Wheeler’s Island,Bhadrak district, around 7.50pm.‘‘The liftoff and the first stage separation was smooth. But it faltered just before the second stage separation and behaved erratically, deviating from its coordinated path. Further analysis is on to ascertain the cause,’’ said a source. The entire trajectory of Monday’s trial was tracked by a battery of sophisticated radars, telemetry observation stations, electro-optic instruments and a naval ship. The launch, originally scheduled in the first week of this month, was deferred due to some technical snags in its pneumatic system. Though the snags were rectified, another glitch surfaced during Monday’s test, leading to the fiasco, the source claimed. The nuclear capable 2,000-km-plus range missile has a length of 20 meters, a diameter of one meter, weighs 17 tonnes and can carry a payload of around 1,000 kg. It was first tested on April 11, 1999. The test launch was significant from India's strategic point of view because for the first time since the beginning of DRDO’s missile development programme, a missile was put under trial during night. The user trial was conducted by Army officials while scientists from DRDO were present to provide necessary logistical support // India after recent failures finds itself at a position where it can doubt its own capabilities to handle any nuclear assault either from China or from Pakistan in case of any future conflict in the region. India is now banking on the hopes that Israel would provide the technology of Jericho ground-to-ground missile system which may help India to substitute its garbage program of Cruise Missile and Multiple ranged Missiles which are definitely stuck in the intermediate stage and cannot be completely relied upon. The recent advancing relationship with USA is also helping India to shelve its own Missile technology and substitute it with already tested and dependable technology which America would offer to India to wipe out the sorrow of the failures on the technological front. The set backs after shameful failures in Nuclear and Missile technology left India with no choice but to look towards USA, Israel and Russia to provide their own tested Missiles and few Nuclear Weapons too to maintain its inventory with dependable and trusted Missiles and warheads. But to achieve that, India could be giving many concessions to these countries including access to the testing, production and storage sites of Nuclear weapons and Multiple ranged Missiles. Article's source is pakistan_hope.bravejournal.com the Blog of the Author of this Article

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