The Hindu : Nuclear command structure to be in place soon

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 31, 2002

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Nuclear command structure to be in place soon

By Sandeep Dikshit

The Army chief and outgoing Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, Gen. S. Padmanabhan, at a meeting to bid farewell to him in New Delhi on Monday. He is flanked by the new Chairman, Admiral Madhvendra Singh, Chief of the Naval Staff (left), and Air Chief Marshal S. Krishnaswamy. — Photo: V. Sudershan

NEW DELHI DEC. 30. The much-awaited strategic forces command to manage India's nuclear and missile assets is likely to be announced early next year and its first chief could be T.M. Asthana, a senior Indian Air Force officer, official sources said here today.

Earlier in the day, the outgoing Chief of Army Staff, S. Padmanabhan, indicated the existence of an "informal" nuclear command structure and hinted at the possibility of a formal announcement soon. "If it does not appear to be there, it does not mean it is not there. What is invisible today will become visible tomorrow," he said responding to a question on when India would have a formal nuclear and strategic command to control its nuclear and missile forces.

"These are certainly things not in the public domain. We may have an informal structure already which in time could acquire a formal status,'' he said. Apart from indicating that a decision on creating appropriate structures for the management and control of nuclear weapons and strategic forces was close at hand, Gen. Padmanabhan was reiterating the observations by other senior officers who have claimed that given India's nuclear status, an "informal" strategic command structure had been in existence for quite some time.

Official sources said Air Vice-Marshal Asthana had been attached to the Air Headquarters (AHQ) in anticipation of a formal announcement by the Cabinet Committee on Security. It was earlier planned to announce his name as the first chief of the strategic forces command this week, but with the Government deciding to hold back the announcement, the officer, who is being relieved from the Southern Air Command, has been declared as attached to the AHQ while being named chief of IAF's training command.

Dispelling the notion that Pakistan's nuclear capability had deterred India from going to war twice last year, Gen. Padmanabhan said cryptically: "When we assess our adversaries, we assess all its capabilities. We had evaluated it (the nuclear capability) and were ready to cope with it."

The armed forces, he added, had sized up the enemy and were only waiting for a "go-ahead" by the political leadership. "We were absolutely ready to go to war. Our forces were well located but such a decision is ultimately a political decision.''

Speaking on the forward deployment, called `Operation Parakram', by the armed forces, the Army Chief said it gave them an opportunity to upgrade training and assess equipment availability in a near-actual situation.

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