Acquisition of emerging technologies by India

India’s Defense Research and Development Organisation has also been working to achieve the required penetrability

Like the Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system, India’s Defense Research and Development Organization has also been working on the speed technologies to achieve the required penetrability for striking targets quickly.

Having already developed BrahMos supersonic cruise missile in collaboration with Russia in June 2001, India has now been working on the development of its ranges, speed, lethality, stealth and penetrability. With a range of 350km, the missile can be launched from land, air and sea. It is reported to be the world’s fastest cruise missile with a speed three times greater than the speed of sound.

It is reported that India has also successfully produced BrahMos-II having a speed five times greater than the speed of sound and is termed hypersonic missile with maneuverability. It is also reported that India could increase its ranges to 1000km. Having claimed that BrahMos-II is designed and built indigenously, India has entered the club of countries such as the US, Russia, and China that possess hypersonic missile capability.

The development of such missiles may have the following implications: it may provide offensive capability to India with confidence and incentive to strike first; it potentially tempts escalation dominance and power projection; and it is feared to increase the arms race and crisis instability among the South Asian nuclear rivals.

It is imperative to note that due to short geographical distances or border contiguity, any response time intercepting the incoming missile with hypersonic speed will be extremely difficult for either side despite the deployment of defense systems. It is believed that hypersonic missile with greater ranges and speed could defeat the deployed defense systems, thereby endangering the strategic stability between the rivals possessing nuclear weapons.

India’s recent “misfiring” of supersonic missile across the border into Pakistan is largely perceived to test Pakistan’s resolve and capacity to intercept the incoming supersonic missile. However, it is uncertain how Pakistan will respond differently if India fires such types of missiles carrying warheads with maligned intention. Presumably, India may be able to hit its targets, but Pakistan could surely come up with retaliation with similar speed and lethality. This in turn could endanger escalation to a serious military crisis.

It is difficult to ascertain how nuclear rivals could make sure the utility of hypersonic missile in the nuclear dynamics. Arguably, any emerging technologies, including hypersonic missile, provide confidence to the possessor to strike first. Therefore, under the rational logic of security dilemma, the acquisition of hypersonic technology could potentially destabilise the broader strategic stability particularly when the possessors get into an illusion to gain quick victories through hypersonic missile while presuming to eliminate the targets quickly.

Leading scholars argue that such emerging technologies tempt rivals for counterforce targeting strategies i.e. targeting the military installation, warheads and delivery systems of the potential adversaries before they could be used. Yet, many others would argue that effective countermeasures could neutralise such efforts against the use of such technologies in the presence of credible nuclear weapons that could potentially become destabilising particularly when the potential adversary has the temptation to go for preemptive strikes. For example, Professor Robert Jervis argues that the implications of nuclear revolution could be “many and far-reaching” i.e. crises will be rare, war should not occur, and the status quo relatively easy to sustain.

Many countries possessing newer technologies presumably have got offensive in hope of quick victories but failed to do so since all such dangerous confidence in possession of such technologies ended up in serious and protracted military crises. That being noted, it remains uncertain how these technologies and counter-technologies in South Asia would end up entangling South Asian rivals for protracted military crises spiraling out of control.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24^th, 2022.

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