Pakistani Ballistic Missiles: Indigenous Content & Development

[Sine Nomine]

The project was making enough progress to rattle US intelligence circles who were very concerned.
If succeeded then the time and money required to produce Weapons grade fissile material will reduce by many magnitudes.

It continued or was put in cold storage?
And how they come to knew about that?

 

[Safriz]

It continued or was put in cold storage?
And how they come to knew about that?

Search wiki leaks. It was mentioned in their internal emails.
They got the hint after Pakistan started sending doctorate students abroad for laser isotope separation thesis.

 

[The Accountant]

Their data is neither accurate nor reliable. Been following them for a while.


Depends on your method and available resources.
For nuclear weapons the Uranium required had to be 90% enriched at least.
A single centrifuge only makes a few grams of weapons grade uranium per year.
And for that reason centrifuge farms are used. Hundreds or may be thousands of centrifuge working together, each making a small quantity and commulativity making kilo's of weapons grade material.
The cost of building such centrifuge farms and ruining them is too high.
That's why the final cost of a single strategic yield nuclear warhead is anywhere from half a billion USD and more.
There was a research program launched by General Musharraf in which the idea was to ditch the centrifuges and shift the fissile material via laser. The project was making enough progress to rattle US intelligence circles who were very concerned.
If succeeded then the time and money required to produce Weapons grade fissile material will reduce by many magnitudes.


25 to 27 warheads are deployed at any given time. The rest are in storage.

What about plotonium based warheads ? How much cost and time they need? And how much do we have plotnium based facilities

 

[Safriz]

What about plotonium based warheads ? How much cost and time they need? And how much do we have plotnium based facilities

I don't have exact figures but plutonium is artificial and made on reactors, and separation of required isotopes is easier compared to Uranium where you sift through tons of natural ore.
But plutonium has another problem. The actual weapon core made of plutonium creates tiny bubbles due to production of Helium as a result of radioactive decay. Over a period of many years these bubbles increase and reduce blast yield of the weapon. Hence the weapon has to be dismantled, plutonium core melted and Re-cast and weapon rebuilt. That adds to the cost and complexity.

 

[SABRE]

I don't have exact figures but plutonium is artificial and made on reactors, and separation of required isotopes is easier compared to Uranium where you sift through tons of natural ore.
But plutonium has another problem. The actual weapon core made of plutonium creates tiny bubbles due to production of Helium as a result of radioactive decay. Over a period of many years these bubbles increase and reduce blast yield of the weapon. Hence the weapon has to be dismantled, plutonium core melted and Re-cast and weapon rebuilt. That adds to the cost and complexity.

"Artificial" is not the correct term for Plutonium (Pu). It is a "man-made" or more correctly a "byproduct" acquired from spent nuclear fuel that is essentially Uranium (U). This means that to acquire 'Pu' you must have 'U' fuel cycle in place, including the sifting "through tons of natural ore."

With regards to escaping radioactive particles, which cause the decay of plutonium, reflective materials like Beryllium, Vanadium, Aluminium, and a few other metal types are placed in the plutonium pit. However, there is no efficient way around the bubbles filled with helium in the pit. This should cause degradation in the weapons' performance but depending on the quality of the pit it may require these bubbles from several decades to a century before it is taken apart and re-prepared.

 

[Safriz]

"Artificial" is not the correct term for Plutonium (Pu). It is a "man-made" or more correctly a "byproduct" acquired from spent nuclear fuel that is essentially Uranium (U). This means that to acquire 'Pu' you must have 'U' fuel cycle in place, including the sifting "through tons of natural ore."

With regards to escaping radioactive particles, which cause the decay of plutonium, reflective materials like Beryllium, Vanadium, Aluminium, and a few other metal types are placed in the plutonium pit. However, there is no efficient way around the bubbles filled with helium in the pit. This should cause degradation in the weapons' performance but depending on the quality of the pit it may require these bubbles from several decades to a century before it is taken apart and re-prepared.

Yes...
Since plutonium is a relatively new material unlike uranium and also not available to everyone unlike uranium, there haven't been much study of the material to understand certain long term characteristics such as helium bubbling.
There haven't been 100 years for any of the Plutonium based nuclear weapon anywhere in the world as the first one was made in 1945 and all in the storage today we're we'e in the 69s and later.
Understanding of those characteristics are based on simulations run on supercomputers and a country like Pakistan doesn't have that luxury.

 

[Pax Ottomana]

Hey guys, is plutonium an absolute requirement for thermonuclear (hydrogen bomb) weapons? Or can they be manufactured with U235 alone? Thanks.

 

[Safriz]

Hey guys, is plutonium an absolute requirement for thermonuclear (hydrogen bomb) weapons? Or can they be manufactured with U235 alone? Thanks.

Can be , but those H-bombs will be the size of a house

 

[Fawadqasim1]

Can be , but those H-bombs will be the size of a house

Hey guys, is plutonium an absolute requirement for thermonuclear (hydrogen bomb) weapons? Or can they be manufactured with U235 alone? Thanks.

Chinese initial tn weapons were u235 based

 

[ghazi52]

Pakistan completes preparations for Missile Test

13 April 1999

ISLAMABAD: As all preparations to test-fire the indigenously-built missiles with superior technology to give a matching response to India have been completed, the final decision will be taken in the Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC) to be held later this week.

"The DCC will meet towards the end this week, as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would return to the capital either on Wednesday evening or Thursday," Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz said on Monday.

Aziz said the DCC meeting would be convened soon to finalise Pakistan's response to India in the context of its test-firing of Agni-II. "We are preparing agenda of the meeting, as this meeting will not only weigh all the available options, but will also consider all aspects before test-firing one or two missiles - Shaheen or Ghauri," said a senior official.

Though different government agencies and departments are rapidly doing their work, teams of Pakistani scientists have been despatched to different locations to do the spade work if the government decides to test-fire either the Shaheen-I, Shaheen-II or Ghauri-II.

There are two schools of thought: First, to test-fire Shaheen or Ghauri as a tit-for-tat response and there should be no delay; and two, Pakistan should not show any haste in giving matching response as test-firing by Agni-II can be responded at any appropriate time, if not at present.

"Pakistan will take the final decision after considering all the aspects, though India's test-firing of Agni-II is not only ill-timed but it is a setback to peace efforts in South Asia," said Foreign Minister Aziz.

Some sources say that the Americans have asked Pakistan not to respond to India in the same fashion, though Pakistan has not given any response to this "silent diplomacy" by the Americans. "We will take an independent decision, taking into consideration our security concerns," said a senior official.

However, several Pakistani officials believe that the United States has not reacted sharply to India's Agni-II test-fire, though New Delhi has shown teeth to the Americans by firing a missile with a range of 2,000 km plus.

Presently, Pakistani leadership, defence managers, and the scientist community have evolved consensus to evaluate the situation, though Pakistan is left with no other option but to give a matching response to India.

Some experts say that Agni-II firing by India was more than a "failure" as India had not issued any technical details, flight of the missile, its target and where it actually landed. "These details are vital in test-firing, and since India has concealed this information even after 36 hours of the test-firing of Agni-II, we believe that it was a failed test."

 

[Amavous]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1370783344879824897

https://twitter.com/x/status/1370786640117915649

 

[Mohamed Bin Tughlaq]

Can be , but those H-bombs will be the size of a house

No man. It doesn't have to be the size of a house if you can purify it at higher levels

 

[Ali_Baba]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1370783344879824897

View attachment 724300

https://twitter.com/x/status/1370786640117915649

Good to see some many variants of CMs in PAF service when you consider how India is struggling in this space.

Keep it up!

 

[Abid123]

Pakistan should create a ballistic missile similiar to the Russian Iskander.

 

[Zarvan]

Why no missile test for past so many months ?