India aware about Chinese missile threat for a decade

India has been aware of the Chinese missile capability and the subsequent threat factor for almost a decade now, defence ministry officials told Rediff On The NeT.

Reacting to a report in The Washington Times, top defence ministry officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed out that for almost a decade now, New Delhi has known that Chinese medium-range missiles are capable of hitting Indian targets. They referred to the CSS-2 missiles which China also sold to Saudi Arabia several years ago. The missile was reported to be capable of striking Indian targets in the North and North-West, the officials said.

This, the officials added, was the reason for accelerating India's missile programme in the late 1980s, culminating in the serial production of the short-range Prithvi missile and the successful test-firing of the Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile Agni. The Indian political leadership has frequently told the West that New Delhi's missile programme is largely a fallout of China's ability to hit Indian targets.

From the Indian perspective, China's compulsions for deploying IRBMs against India could be two-fold. Firstly, the Chinese People's Liberation Army is perceived as a flabby fighting force which may have problems in a serious conventional war. The PLA's fighting skills have been limited to quelling the 1989 disturbances in Tienanmen Square and the recent rebellion in Xianjiang province.

As a result, Indian defence strategists feel Beijing has augmented its defence capability via missiles and nuclear weapons. This gives Beijing the needed deterrent against its adversaries.

There have been reports that some of these IRBMs are deployed in Tibet. However, defence ministry officials are unsure if the missiles will be operational at such high altitudes. In the Indian experience on the Siachen glacier -- where India and Pakistan are entangled in high altitude conflict -- helicopters could not take off because its fuel froze. Ammunition was also found ineffective at times.

The other question troubling defence planners is the Chinese transfer of missile technology to Pakistan. Pakistan's Hatf III missile is reportedly similar to China's M9 missile. The technology is said to have been transferred to Islamabad in the late 1980s. After assembling the IRBM missile, the Pakistanis began talking in terms of targetting India.

EXTERNAL LINKS: The Chinese missile programme