| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 2003 (2003) |
| Jurisdiction | Government of India |
| Headquarters | New Delhi |
| Agency executive | |
TheNuclear Command Authority (NCA) of India is the authority responsible for command, control and operational decisions regardingIndia's nuclear weapons programme.[1] It comprises a Political Council headed by thePrime Minister of India and an Executive Council headed by theNational Security Advisor.[2]
India's first Nuclear test was conducted on 18 May 1974 with the code nameSmiling Buddha. Since then India has conducted another series of tests at thePokhran test range in the state ofRajasthan in 1998, which included a thermonuclear test, code namedOperation Shakti. India has an extensive civil and military nuclear program, which includes at least 10nuclear reactors,uranium mining and milling sites,heavy water production facilities, auranium enrichment plant, fuel fabrication facilities, and extensive nuclear research capabilities.
Though India has not made any official statements about the size of its nuclear arsenal, different country estimates indicate that India has anywhere between 150 and 300 nuclear weapons.[3][4]
On 4 January 2003, theCabinet Committee on Security (CCS) constituted thePolitical Council and theExecutive Council of the NCA. The Executive Council gives its opinion to the Political Council, which authorises a nuclear attack when deemed necessary. While the Executive Council is chaired by theNational Security Advisor (NSA), the Political Council is chaired by thePrime Minister. This mechanism was implemented to ensure thatIndian nuclear weapons remain firmly incivilian control and that there exists a sophisticatedCommand and Control (C2) mechanism to prevent their accidental or unauthorised use.[5]
The directives of the NCA are operationalised by theStrategic Forces Command (SFC) under the control of aCommander-in-Chief ofthree-star rank. The SFC is in charge of the management and administration of the tactical and strategic nuclear forces.[5][1]
The NCA may be seen as the first stage in the development of an effective and robustCommand and Control (C2) and Indications-and-Warning (I&W) systems and infrastructure for its strategic nuclear forces.
The current status of delivery systems for Indiannuclear weapons is unclear and highly classified. India has developed and tested nuclear weapons that could be delivered on thePrithvi andAgni missiles, although its extent and operational preparedness in this respect remains unclear.
India first tested the 150 km range Prithvi-1 in 1988, and the 250 km range Prithvi-2 in 1996, and the Prithvi missiles were inducted into the Indian armed forces by the early to mid 1990s. India was slow to develop the Agni missiles. It first tested the Agni technology demonstrator in 1989, the two-stage 2000 km range Agni-2 in 1999, single-stage 700 km range Agni-1 in 2001, the 3,000 km range three-stage Agni-3 in 2006, Agni-4 with a range of 4,000 km in 2011 and Agni-5 with an estimated range between 5,000 and 8,000 in the year 2012. The successor, Agni-6 is said to be under development with a speculated range of 10,000 km.
Since India had a few nuclear weapons prior to the availability of these missiles, especially the Agni, it is probable that the current Indian nuclear weapons inventory includes weapons designed for delivery using airplanes. TheIndian Armed Forces operates theDassault Rafale which is capable of carrying out nuclear attacks. There are no open-source reports suggesting which if any of these planes have been equipped to deliver air-dropped atomic weapons. One or more of the following aircraft types might be used for this purpose. TheMiG-27 and theJaguar were originally designed to perform ground attack missions, and would require only modest modification to deliver nuclear weapons. TheIndian Air Force also operates several other older and less capable types of ground-attack aircraft which would seem rather less likely candidates for delivering nuclear weapons. TheMiG-29,Sukhoi Su-30 MKI andMirage 2000 were originally designed to perform air-to-air combat missions, though they could potentially be modified to deliver air-dropped nuclear weapons. Plans are also on for the delivery of nuclear weapons via theArihant class submarine using theSLBM/SLCMSagarika.
India andPakistan set up their own nuclear hotline on Sunday, 20 June 2004.[6]
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