Cathy Gwin
Senior Director, Communications
New Databases Track India and Pakistan Missile Launches
India and Pakistan captured global news headlines in
February after almost
igniting a nuclear war. Since then, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
abolished the special autonomous status of the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir,
further heightening tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
For in-depth analysis on the crisis, the Nuclear Threat
Initiative (NTI), in cooperation with the James Martin Center for
Nonproliferation Studies (CNS), offers critical resources on the history and
capabilities of the Indian and Pakistani nuclear and missile programs.
Available resources include brand-new missile
test databases for India and Pakistan, new
analysis of the Balakot Crisis from Jeffrey Lewis, and background resources
like country profiles and 3D models.
The CNS India and Pakistan
Missile Launch Databases
Two
new databases produced by CNS document flight tests of all missiles and
space launch vehicles (SLVs) launched by India and Pakistan. The downloadable
databases are accompanied by an interactive infographic that allows users to
view the tests over time, by location, by rocket type and family, and by launch
result. The database will be updated regularly, as needed. In their analysis
of the data, CNS Research Associates Shea Cotton and Anne Pellegrino discuss
India and Pakistan’s development of cruise missiles and how the new systems
threaten to disrupt positive testing practices and norms around ballistic
missile use that emerged between the two countries.
What Could Have
Happened: Modi’s “Night of Murder”
India and Pakistan have always had a tense history. However,
last spring, the two countries came closer to nuclear war than ever before. In
a new
analysis and interactive Jeffrey Lewis discusses how nuclear crises in
South Asia are reminiscent of the Cold War relationship between the Soviet
Union and the United States, but with one crucial difference—India and Pakistan
share a border. With missile flight times between India and Pakistan taking
only a few minutes, Indian and Pakistani leaders have no time for a considered
response, and it is unclear whether they would be able to step back from the
brink before catastrophe. To understand just how close India and Pakistan came
to nuclear war during the Balakot Crisis, CNS produced an interactive scenario
that depicts how the situation could have gone very wrong.
Other key resources:
Indian
Ballistic and Cruise Missile Models
Pakistan
Ballistic and Cruise Missile Models
Media inquiries about the India and Pakistan missile test
databases and accompanying graphics or the “Night of Murder” interactive can be
directed to Anne Pellegrino at [email protected]
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