This volume is the second part of a two-part project on Indian military modernization which examines India’s evolving capabilities in areas relating to advanced technologies in cruise missiles, nuclear weapons, anti-satellite weapons, missile defence, and information-based warfare. How have India’s strategic capabilities evolved and what direction are they likely to take? The volume addresses this central question and examines the political, institutional and organizational challenges confronting India’s efforts. India’s evolving strategic capabilities show signs of both continuity and change. ... More

This volume is the second part of a two-part project on Indian military modernization which examines India’s evolving capabilities in areas relating to advanced technologies in cruise missiles, nuclear weapons, anti-satellite weapons, missile defence, and information-based warfare. How have India’s strategic capabilities evolved and what direction are they likely to take? The volume addresses this central question and examines the political, institutional and organizational challenges confronting India’s efforts. India’s evolving strategic capabilities show signs of both continuity and change. While the doctrinal and organizational elements in India’s military posture reflect some changes, addressing the inefficiencies within the Indian national security decision-making structure is likely to be a long-drawn-out process. The trajectory of India’s strategic programmes will remain incremental owing to the fact that India is primarily a reactive state. Owing to the absence of clear direction from the apex level of government and to inertia, changes are likely to be characterized by slow improvements and by limited changes in institutional capacities and capabilities for the policy-relevant future. Apart from this, critical constraining factors internal to the Indian state will manifest themselves in a gap between ambition and capacity to deliver on capabilities. The non-inclusion of the military in crafting national strategy and national security decision making serves to limit the scope for a dramatic transformation in India’s strategic capabilities. In sum, the modernization of India’s strategic capabilities will be staggered, moving more in fits and starts.