Pakistan celebrates 1965 war win over India

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Pakistan Defence Round-up(in Urdu):

Pakistan shifting from Uranium to Plutonium for its Nukes: Report

sdIn a paper written for the Bulletin for Atomic Scientists, Robert Norris of the Natural Resources Defense Council and Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists say Pakistan’s weapons and deliver-systems can be assumed to be India-specific because Islamabad “has not declared any other adversary.” The United States has been expressing concern to Pakistan about its accelerated program and urging it hold back, but there does not appear to be any concerted effort from Washington to influence Pakistan’s decisions, it said.

In their paper, Kristensen and Norris say Pakistan is improving its weapon designs, moving beyond its first-generation nuclear weapons that relied on Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU). After pursuing plutonium-based designs for more than a decade, Islamabad appears to have mastered the technology.

Central to that effort, the paper says, is the 40–50-megawatt heavy water Khushab plutonium production reactor, which was completed in 1998 and is located at Joharabad in the Khushab district of Punjab. Six surface-to-air missile batteries surround the site to protect against air strikes. Norris and Kristensen say as a sign of its confidence in its plutonium designs, Pakistan is building two additional heavy water reactors at the Khushab site, which will more than triple the country’s plutonium production.

Explaining the changing nature of the Pak arsenal, they say all of these efforts suggest that Pakistan is preparing to increase and enhance its nuclear forces. In particular, the new facilities provide the Pakistani military with several options: fabricating weapons that use plutonium cores; mixing plutonium with HEU to make composite cores; and/or using tritium to “boost” warheads’ yield.

Without referencing the recent controversy in India about the success or otherwise of its thermo-nuclear test in 1998 (now dubbed the sizzle vs fizzle debate), the paper says “absent a successful full-scale thermonuclear test (by Pakistan), it is premature to suggest that Pakistan is producing two-stage thermonuclear weapons” – in other words, it has yet to acquire a Hydrogen Bomb.

But, they say, the types of facilities under construction suggest that Pakistan has decided to supplement and perhaps replace its heavy uranium-based weapons with smaller, lighter plutonium-based designs that could be delivered further by ballistic missiles than its current warheads and that could be used in cruise missiles.

In a paper written for the Bulletin for Atomic Scientists, Robert Norris of the Natural Resources Defense Council and Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists say Pakistan’s weapons and deliver-systems can be assumed to be India-specific because Islamabad “has not declared any other adversary.” The United States has been expressing concern to Pakistan about its accelerated program and urging it hold back, but there does not appear to be any concerted effort from Washington to influence Pakistan’s decisions, they said.

Pakistan rapidly ramping up India-specific nuclear arsenal: Report

Khushab Nuclear Reactor of Pakistan

According to a secret report prepared by top US nuclear scientists that suggests that Pakistan is busily enhancing its nuclear weapons and productions capabilities across the board.

Pakistan denies it altered US-made missiles

‘The accusations are incorrect and based on wrong intelligence,’ said Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s ambassador to the US

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan rejected accusations its army illegally modified American-made missiles to increase its land-strike capability, denying Sunday that it reconfigured anti-ship weapons in a way that could target India.

Pakistan Altered Missiles Sold for Defence: NYT

Pakistan Reversed Engineered US missiles: US

WASHINGTON — The United States has accused Pakistan of illegally modifying American-made missiles to expand its capability to strike land targets, a potential threat to India, according to senior administration and Congressional officials.

Pakistan starts serial manufacture of Drones at kamra

FALCO UAV

ATTOCK: Pakistan has started manufacturing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drone, in collaboration with Selex Galileo of Italy which claims to lead the unmanned aerial systems market.

Maulvi Omar captured, says Baitullah is dead

Maulvi Omar Captured

ISLAMABAD: Security forces captured Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan’s top spokesman, and he acknowledged the death of the group’s leader in a recent US missile strike, officials said on Tuesday.

Pakistani militants form groups to free there captured Commanders: Agencies

Pakistani militants have formed two groups to free their comrades from various prisons in the country, a media report said.

The two groups named Lashkar Omar and Lashkar Abu Jandal will devise strategies to free their associates who were captured during the military operation in northwest Pakistan, the Online news agency reported Friday. There are also suicide bombers in the groups.

Fellow commander says Taliban leader Mehsud dead

US Drone kills Baitullah

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan — A commander from Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud’s group says Mehsud was killed in a U.S. missile strike earlier this week.

Baitullah Killed, News Videos

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