ABSTRACT
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in its 2017 report on India notes that India continues to modernise its nuclear arsenal, with at least several new weapon systems under development to complement or replace the existing nuclear-capable aircraft, land-based delivery systems and sea-based systems. Krishnaswami Subrahmanyam believed that “a force of around 60 deliverable warheads could meet adequately India’s need for a minimum deterrent.” Perhaps the most ‘minimalist of the maximalists’ is Lieutenant General Pran Pahwa who recommended in a study for the United Service Institution of India that India’s deterrence should be based on 182 warheads. India has a cruise missile program which, when completed, would give the country another option for the delivery of nuclear warheads. It must be clarified that India’s cruise missile projects have to be divided into two—the BrahMos supersonic system and the Nirbhay subsonic system.
