President Donald Trump’s recent claim about Russia, China and Pakistan doing nuclear tests raised quite some eyebrows, but Brig Arun Sahgal (Retd) of the Forum for Security Initiatives in Delhi, offered a context.
In a conversation on The Gist, Sahgal pointed out that “All these countries are engaged in very low yield testing, they are trying to look at outputs, force explosion outputs based on the technologies that they are developing. The second area is sub-critical testing.
“We have to understand that before Trump made those remarks, preparations were already ongoing in the United States … (at) Los Alamos that was being prepared for testing. The uranium mines are (also) being upgraded.”
There is a massive upgradation programme which the Americans are involved in but Trump is deflecting the blame on the Chinese and the Russians. The latter recently tested a nuclear powered cruise missile that “can reach anywhere on earth, bypassing the most sophisticated air and missile defence systems”.
Also the Poseidon, a nuclear-powered torpedo that has a top speed of 200 km an hour and can zig-zag to avoid interception.
“The Chinese are equally getting ready for some kind of testing. Also the fact is they are creating a large number of silos and upgrading their nuclear arsenals. More systems are being brought into the picture,” Brig Sahgal noted.
All this points to the fact that the world is in the middle of what Sahgal describes as the “Third Nuclear Age”, in which Trump and the major nuclear powers are launching a full frontal assault on the existing arms control treaties.
Thus the US, Russia and China signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty but Washington never ratified it. Although the other two did, none of them see the treaty as an important element in nuclear restraint.
“This restraint is breaking apart,” Sahgal warned, “and there is a perception emerging of a decapitating first strike from cyber-space and also space using non-nuclear strategic weapons.”
Tune in for more in this conversation with Brig Arun Sahgal (Retd) of the Forum for Security Initiatives.
Thirty eight years in journalism, widely travelled, history buff with a preference for Old Monk Rum. Current interest/focus spans China, Technology and Trade. Recent reads: Steven Colls Directorate S and Alexander Frater's Chasing the Monsoon. Netflix/Prime video junkie. Loves animal videos on Facebook. Reluctant tweeter.
