Pakistan now has N-weapon parity with India

ISLAMABAD:  An assessment by an American think-tank claims that Pakistan has been producing more plutonium every year than India for many years and producing nuclear bombs faster, primarily to outmatch India’s nuclear weapons and missile capacity.

According to a study by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), Pakistan presently has between 55 and 90 nuclear weapons compared to between 55 and 110 in India. In its most up-to-date study on the world’s fissile-material stocks, David Albright and Kimberly Kramer of the ISIS have estimated that Israel has 110 to 190 weapons and North Korea has two to nine weapons respectively. India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea are the de facto nuclear weapons states. The ISIS study published by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists is based on the production of fissile material in nuclear countries.

The ISIS study states that India, whose nuclear-weapons program is by and large plutonium-based, presently has between 300 and 470 kg of plutonium stocks. Pakistan is believed to have been producing more plutonium per year than India for several years and has between 20kg and 60kg of plutonium at present. “But Pakistan, whose weapons program is generally uranium-based, has between 1,200kg and 1,250kg of highly enriched uranium,” says the study.

Though a smaller arsenal does not matter much in the case of nuclear deterrence, if Pakistan overtakes India in atomic bombs, it will make it much more difficult for India to negotiate a fissile-materials cutoff treaty.

The ISIS study states that Pakistan has five functional ballistic missiles today, while India has a single Prithvi battlefield ballistic missile.