Rahul Singh
The military didn’t really bear the brunt of sanctions after operation Shakti or Pokhran ­ii as it wasn’t dependent on American weaponry in that decade

India’s 1998 underground tests (conducted exactly 20 years ago) marked the country’s arrival on the world’s nuclear stage and set the scene for some impressive developments in its strategic programme, but one of the immediate fallouts of the sanctions imposed by the United States was the temporary grounding of an ambitious project to locally produce fighter jets.

The Indian military didn’t really bear the brunt of the sanctions following Operation Shakti or Pokhran-ii as it wasn’t dependent on US weaponry during that decade but the development of the light combat aircraft (LCA) took a hit, experts said.

“We were seeking the help of American firm Martin Marietta, which later became Lockheed Martin after a merger, for the LCA project. But the ban on export of certain critical technologies by the US after the nuclear tests upset our calculations,” said A Sivathanu Pillai, who was then chief controller (R&D) at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

India approved the LCA project in 1983 as a replacement for the Soviet-origin MIG-21 fleet. However, the Indian Air Force formed its first LCA squadron with two fighter jets only two years ago. Pillai said the US sanctions delayed the LCA project by about two years. “We wanted US help to develop control algorithms for aircraft stability. After the sanctions were imposed, we formed our own team of experts to achieve that,” said Pillai, who retired in 2014 as the CEO of Brahmos.

India’s nuclear programme has matured significantly in the last two decades and the commissioning of INS Arihant in 2016 completed the country’s nuclear triad, or ability to launch strategic weapons from land, air, and sea. General VP Malik (retd), who was the army chief when the Pokhran tests were carried out, said that by 1998, India was under tremendous pressure to give up any attempt to acquire nuclear weapons capability due to Non-proliferation Treaty, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and the Nuclear Suppliers Group regime.

“This (nuclear) capability was an essential deterrent on account of our two nuclear-armed (Pakistan had not tested but we knew of its capability) neighbours,” Malik said. “So it was now or never. I am glad that we went for it. Despite some protest and sanctions, over the years we have overcome all opposition. Operation Shakti was a great achievement,” he added.

Apart from bar the export of critical technologies to India, the sanctions put an end to US credit and credit guarantees to India. “The military didn’t really suffer much as most of our platforms were sourced from Russia. The tests allowed us to complete our nuclear triad,” said Air Marshal KK Nohwar (retd), who heads the Centre for Air Power Studies.

Pillai said Operation Shakti provided India the building blocks for maintaining credible minimum deterrence.

If India were to conduct nuclear tests now, things would be vastly different as India’s dependence on US military hardware has grown over the last decade, said a senior military officer who did not wish to be named.

Since 2008, India has bought or ordered military equipment worth $15 billion from the US, including C-130J special operations planes, C-17 transport aircraft, P-8I submarine hunter planes, Harpoon missiles, Apache and Chinook helicopters and M777 lightweight howitzers.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times: 1 May 2018