Nuclear wishlist is heart of carrier deal

[rodbarnett]

NEW DELHI : The Gorshkov deal is merely the sweetener for a larger, more complex, semi-covert arrangement to give teeth to India 's nuclear deterrent.

Aware of India 's needs on the nuclear front, the Russians demanded a steep price, which included the purchase of the MiG-29K, an aircraft no other country, including the Russians, has purchased so far. Wrangling over this issue and the price delayed negotiations for the past three years.

Through separate agreements, Russia is expected to lease at least two nuclear submarines and several nuclear capable bombers to India .

As of now, India possesses nuclear weapons, but lacks a reliable delivery capability. The Agni missiles are still under development and in the meantime existing Indian Air Force fighters are
designated for nuclear delivery even though they were not designed for the purpose. The Russians will lease the bombers with the claim that these are sub-strategic aircraft of limited range.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/435662.cms

[HawkerHurricane]

1. Piffle.

Any supersonic fighter can drop a nuke (and get away from the blast).
India has plenty of them. If they want bombers, it just means they want to get a more visible threat, not a better delivery system.

On second thought, they may want the bombers to threaten CHINA, who whould be pretty much immune to the short range supersonic fighters they have...