The Indian military has taken several measures to help detect and respond to a nuclear, biological or chemical attack without violating any international arms control conventions, military scientists said today.

“We have tested some biological and chemical agents,” said R.V. Swamy, chief controller of India’s Defense Research and Development Organization.  “We do not produce biological weapons, but in order to produce safeguards against them we need substances in small amounts, and no convention stops us from doing that,” he said.

One of the items the organization has developed is a mobile nuclear shelter that could protect 30 people for up to four days following a nuclear attack (see GSN, June 7).  Organization officials have already provided technology to the private sector to mass-produce the shelters for the military, Swamy said.

“Many of these items are under production and have been already introduced in the army, which is doing training in nuclear warfare now,” he said.

The organization has also developed sensors that could pick up signals of a nuclear strike within seconds, providing ground forces with time to respond, Swamy and his colleague M.P. Chachirkar said.

“The sensors work within seconds because in two minutes after a (nuclear) blast everything is lost,” Chachirkar said (Pratap Chakravarty, Agence France-Presse, July 11).

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