Indian Government Research Agencies are Failing
It is very clear to any neutral observer that the nuclear tests conducted by both India and Pakistan in 1998 failed to meet their objectives. In a news article on the Hindu, K. Santhanam (Project Leader, Pokhran-II and Ashok Parthasarathi (Science and Technology adviser to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi) have clearly indicated that tests not only did not meet the requirements but the thermonuclear device that was tested actually failed.
Indian scientists have finally admitted what scientists all over the world have speculated for the past 11 years about the validity and effectiveness of the tests. In a sense the results are disappointing. The yield from the 1998 tests where smaller than the yield from the first ever nuclear tests performed by the United States in 1948.
The tests and incidents like these reveal a lot about the Indian scientific community. Government owned institutions like the Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) and Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) lack independence and are politicized. Unfortunately they are willing to tailor the results of tests to please their political masters instead of looking at the data and reaching scientifically valid conclusions. There is nothing wrong with failure.
Many success stories will have some failures (or areas of improvement as I would call it) in the beginning. Between 1948 and 1992 the United States tested over 1000 nuclear devices. During the same period India has tested only about 8. So we cannot expect to compete with other established nuclear weapons state like the United States or Russia. Unfortunately further testing is not possible due to political reasons (legally India can test a device because India has not signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty). But India will face automatic sanctions from countries like the United States because of their laws.
The failure of these tests has serious strategic implications. India has since claimed that it is capable of launching a nuclear tipped missile (Agni and Brahmos) from land, ship or from the air. Now the question is whether these claims are true? So far we have not successfully tested a real thermonuclear device. So how can we claim now that we have miniature versions of these devices that we can attach to a missile? Does India really have a nuclear deterrence? It may against Pakistan or some of its smaller neighbors but clearly not against China.
This article also exposes another serious problem within the scientific community. Indian scientists and organizations like the DRDO have a tradition of making claims that they cannot back up. I read an article today that India has launched a ship (INS Cochi) that has stealth characteristics. This claim is laughable. How can you claim that a ship has stealth characteristics when you do not have the means to test it? The “stealth” characteristics of a ship partly depend on the design and construction but mostly on the types of radar that is designed to evade.
We do not have advanced radar systems. The only areas where we have decent radar is on planes that we bought from Russia and the AWAC that we purchased from Israel this year (the Phalcon radar is actually an American design licensed to Israel). Whenever these “feel good” stories are released by the government, the scientific community and media should challenge it without just writing down what the government is dictating.
There are many reasons why governments all over the world keep sending out these “feel good” stories about their capabilities. One reason is to fool the enemy into thinking that you actually have something when you really do not. Another reason is that the military establishments in most countries are vying with other agencies like education and health for their share of the budget. So making outrageous claims that are not tested or exaggerating the capabilities of the enemy is an easy way to keep money flowing into these programs.
On top of this India has a problem of its own. Scientific community in India (the government version) is not open to collaboration with the outside world. This comes from the strong belief in “self reliance” set during the Indira Gandhi days. For some reason transparency and exchange of ideas and technology from outside is considered bad (consider the strong opposition from BARC and other organizations to the India-America Nuclear Agreement).
There are a couple of problems with this self reliance concept. First of all we do not what the capabilities are of the rest of the world. But most importantly we do not know our own capability because there is nothing to compare it to. One solution to this problem is allowing the Indian defense sector companies to indulge in joint weapons systems design and development with leading manufacturers and research institutions in the world. More oversight would also help.
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Category: News & Government