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The only reason why India would need to test again is ego. Not out of any military necessity for two reasons.
I don't know what really happened in 1998 and 2002/2003, but it doesn't seem very egotistical to admit that what had been hailed as a success is now being shown through gray lenses.
1) India's arsenal is deterrence, not war fighting. You start fighting a nuclear war and you've already lost that fight before it began. The Chinese can blanket India with 178 nukes initially and 500 more within 6 months and they've already got the rockets, 1600 of them at last count.
Pakistan see its arsenal as the final band of its warfighting spectrum. Right now, with the ambiguity of the TN capabilities and general decision-making confusion in India, some Pakistanis in the decision-making levels also see it as a possibly war-winning tool (possibly for the same reason you list below). That is having real security implications for Indians, as we can all see.
2) Unless you're going for hardened targets (which you would need alot more nukes and a lot more accurate missiles), then the current yields are perfectly fine against soft targets. Ok, 12kts is not as impressive as 200kt or even 1 megaton but 12kts can destroy water treatment and sewage. Cholera can kill people just as dead as a nuke blast.
It is psychological - and for being psy, it nonetheless has real security implications.
The only reason why India would need to test again is ego. Not out of any military necessity for two reasons.
I don't know what really happened in 1998 and 2002/2003, but it doesn't seem very egotistical to admit that what had been hailed as a success is now being shown through gray lenses.
1) India's arsenal is deterrence, not war fighting. You start fighting a nuclear war and you've already lost that fight before it began. The Chinese can blanket India with 178 nukes initially and 500 more within 6 months and they've already got the rockets, 1600 of them at last count.
Pakistan see its arsenal as the final band of its warfighting spectrum. Right now, with the ambiguity of the TN capabilities and general decision-making confusion in India, some Pakistanis in the decision-making levels also see it as a possibly war-winning tool (possibly for the same reason you list below). That is having real security implications for Indians, as we can all see.
2) Unless you're going for hardened targets (which you would need alot more nukes and a lot more accurate missiles), then the current yields are perfectly fine against soft targets. Ok, 12kts is not as impressive as 200kt or even 1 megaton but 12kts can destroy water treatment and sewage. Cholera can kill people just as dead as a nuke blast.
It is psychological - and for being psy, it nonetheless has real security implications.
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