India has approximately a hundred nuclear warheads and a triad of delivery systems. These weapons are intended for defense against two possible aggressors, China and Pakistan, both of which also have nuclear weapons. Recently, India began receiving fighter jets that will be able to fire nuclear cruise missiles.
There have been reports in the media that India’s Strategic Forces Command (SFC) begun taking delivery of 42 Su-30 MKI air dominance fighters modified to be able to be equipped with air-launch BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles. It is believed that this will be an important addition to the striking power of the air branch of India’s nuclear triad.
Russia and India Report said, “Individually, the Su-30 and BrahMos are powerful weapons, ”Russia and India Report noted. “But when the world’s most capable fourth generation fighter is armed with a uniquely destructive cruise missile, together they are a dramatic force multiplier.”
The Su-30 MKI is built by Russia’s Sukoi Design Bureau and licensed to India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. The two seat, highly maneuverable, fourth-generation multirole combat fighter aircraft will be the backbone of the Indian Air Force through 2020. The Indian Air Force has two hundred jet fighters and plans to obtain eighty two more.
India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroeyenia collaborated on the development of the Brahmos cruise missile. The Brahmos missile can travel at speeds of up to two thousand and three hundred miles per hour or about three times the speed of sound. For comparison, the fastest rifle bullets travel about two thousand feet per second. The Brahmos missile is the fastest cruise missile in the world. It impacts a target with enormous kinetic energy which adds to the destruction of the warhead. When launched from a Su-30, the speed of the Su_30 is added to the speed of the missile. The missile can carry a nuclear warhead.
When the Su-30 is equipped with the Brahmos missile, it will expand the striking power of the aircraft leg of the Indian nuclear triad. The Su-80 itself can travel over eleven hundred miles. In addition to the range of the Su-50, the Brahmos missile can travel over one hundred and eighty miles from its launch point.
The SFC proposed equipping Su-30s with Brahmos missiles back in 2010 when it requested two squadrons of Su-30s. In 2012, the Indian cabinet authorized a program to redesign forty two Su-30s to carry two hundred and ten Brahmos missiles or five missiles per plane. The project of integrating the Su-30s with the Brahmos missiles was carried out by BrahMos Aerospace. The SFC took delivery of the first modified planes last February and was going through testing last month. The next plane is currently in production. The schedule for the delivery of the rest of the planes has not yet been determined.
If there is a nuclear war between Pakistan and India, both sides will suffer great damage and much nuclear fallout as the winds shift with the seasons. Even the exchange of a few warheads could trigger adverse effects in the atmosphere of the whole northern hemisphere.
Crest of the Indian Air Force:
