NEW DELHI: Amid the controversy over the yield from the Pokhran-II nuclear tests, former Chief of Naval Staff Arun Prakash emphasised there was no room to doubt the credibility of India’s nuclear deterrent even as he advocated institutional checks and balances to take major decisions in this sphere.
“In the midst of the current brouhaha, we need to retain clarity on one issue; given the deuterium-tritium boosted-fission weapons can generate yields of 200-500kts, the credibility of India’s nuclear deterrent is not in the slightest doubt,” Adm.(Retd) Prakash said in his article on the National Maritime Foundation (NMF) website.
While observing that the “unseemly squabbling” among the nation’s senior most scientists would certainly upset and confuse the Indian armed forces, he said “this strong, silent bulwark of India’s security has, so far, accepted the claims and statements of the DRDO (and DAE) scientist at face value and borne the operational consequences of many failed scientific projects with admirable stoicism. Will they continue to do so?”
He said the organisational gap with the detachment of the Service Headquarters (SHQ) from most aspects of nuclear deterrence is well known.
The Army’s missile brigade, the Navy’s Prithvi-armed vessels, and the dual-tasked Indian Air Force units seem to form the only interface between the SHQ on one side, and the SFC as well as the DRDO/DAE, on the other.
Traditionally, Adm. Prakash said, there has been neither interest nor in-depth knowledge of the doctrine or philosophy of nuclear deterrence in the armed forces and this exists all the way up to the top.
This was so because it is only when the Service Chief becomes the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee that he finds himself in the nuclear chain of command.
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