With the normalization of confrontation in the Sino-Indian border area, the Indian government has actively promoted large-scale infrastructure construction actions based on "digging deep holes, building more roads, and building walls". According to india's "Eurasia Times" website reported on December 27, the Indian Army engineer Harpal Ahmed, who recently won the award, said that he would like to win the award. Lieutenant General Singh said. The Indian Army is procuring new technologies and equipment to build underground tunnels in border areas for the storage of ammunition and as anti-nuclear reinforcement facilities, thereby enhancing the combat effectiveness and resistance of ground forces to nuclear strikes. Therefore, it has to be said that the Indian military can be described as far-sighted.
According to Indian media reports and professionals, the Indian Army's move is to use the underground super protection project to enhance the defense capability of ground forces and key targets in the border area under the attack of opponents' tactical nuclear weapons.
Underground protection projects can effectively deal with the damage caused by air-detonated nuclear weapons and touch-to-ground nuclear weapons, such as light radiation, shock waves, nuclear fireballs and initial contaminated radiation. However, with the rapid development of conventional/nuclear munitions in the ground, especially the sudden emergence of nuclear warheads in the ground, higher requirements have been put forward for the defense capabilities of underground protection projects. According to the Current Operational Concept of the Indian Army and related operations, underground protection projects in the border areas, in addition to dealing with general tactical nuclear weapons, do not rule out the possibility of resisting ground-penetrating nuclear warheads.
A ground-penetrating nuclear bomb is a nuclear bomb or nuclear warhead that can penetrate into the ground at a certain depth and explode. It mainly uses the seismic shock wave and pit action generated by nuclear explosion to destroy enemy high-value/time-sensitive targets, such as missile silos, underground command posts, etc., and can also be used to attack enemy submarines under extremely thick ice.
The shell shell of the drilling nuclear bomb is very strong, the overall design is complete, the weld is reduced, the shell will not be cracked when it reaches the ground, and the drilling bomb can rely on its own huge kinetic energy to drill into the ground, and then detonate after reaching a certain depth. In order to avoid the high temperature burning warhead generated during the drilling process, the drill shell shell has a heat-proof coating inside and outside, and the inside of the shell is provided with a heat-proof gasket between the inside and the charge.
Conventional ground-penetrating weapons are limited by the low explosive yield of the charge, resulting in far inferiority to ground-penetrating nuclear warheads in terms of combat effectiveness and threatening effect. The best craters for drilling nuclear warheads are usually more than ten times larger than craters of the same mass of ground-touching nuclear explosions, and the ground shock wave destruction effect of drill-ground nuclear explosions on deep underground solid engineering is several times to dozens of times greater than that of the same equivalent ground-touching explosions.
The analysis of the underground nuclear explosion test data shows that the ground shock wave effect of 10,000 to 20,000 tons of underground nuclear explosion on deep underground engineering is equivalent to the ground shock wave effect of 1 million tons of ground-touching nuclear explosion. In addition, when multiple bombs hit deep underground projects at the same time, the peak of ground impact stress generated is several times higher than that of a single bullet, which greatly improves the damage effect on deep underground projects. Therefore, this is the real reason why the US military has always been keen to promote the research and development of ground-penetrating nuclear bombs and the actual combat role.
The rapid development of the spear also affects the response ability of the shield, and the underground protection project will face many technical problems in the process of construction and development. For example, with the continuous increase of excavation depth, ground stress, temperature and groundwater infiltration pressure will be further intensified, and the deterioration of geological conditions and operating environment will lead to a significant increase in construction difficulty and construction costs.
In addition, how to create building materials with stronger impact resistance is also a major difficulty. India has conducted research in this field, and according to early Reports by indian media, the Indian military has planned to build underground bunkers in New Delhi or the northern and central regions to resist nuclear strikes. In order to protect the personal safety of military and political leaders and serve as a strategic command and decision-making body, the design indicators are said to be at least able to resist the attack of the US B-61 ground-penetrating nuclear bomb at that time.
Today, India has mastered some of the technology in this field, and it is not known how effective it will be. However, in terms of technical level, it is absolutely behind China, the United States and Russia and other countries, the reason is very simple, as can be seen from the previous Indian military key research and development projects. For example, "Guanghui", "Arjun", domestic aircraft carriers and so on. Therefore, from this perspective, it is not difficult to understand that the Indian media has regarded it as a "stage victory" and then hyped up the report.
India's infrastructure operations in the China-India border area seem to be in full swing, but the actual completion effect cannot be described as unsatisfactory. For example, at the end of the last century, the Indian government proposed to build 73 roads in the Sino-Indian border area, most of which were for military purposes. However, until the end of the Doklam incident between the two countries, according to Indian media, only 27 roads have been completed, and the overall quality is not as good as the roads in Tibet.
In 2010, the Indian government decided to plan the construction of 27 strategic railway lines along the border areas of China, Pakistan and Nepal, of which 14 were identified as of great strategic importance to national security. However, as of today, none of them have started construction. In 2018, India decided to excavate 17 underground tunnels in the border area, with a total length of 100 kilometers, also for military purposes, in addition to building 410 strategic bridges, but the process of construction has been very slow so far.
It can be seen from this that India's infrastructure construction capacity is so weak, in addition, the scale of construction projects is extremely mismatched with its own resources, coupled with the characteristic tradition of "two days of fishing, three days of drying the net", which has led to these infrastructure actions not only attracting foreign questions and ridicule, but even the Indian media that have always praised India are generally depressed.
In addition, the cost input, infrastructure construction in high-altitude areas, subject to natural conditions and meteorological conditions, supporting infrastructure and other issues, the cost investment is only high compared to other regions, which is a huge test for a country's financial ability. The specific financial revenue of the Indian government is well known to everyone.
Despite the large amount of money invested in infrastructure operations in border areas, there is still a widespread flow of benefits among project contractors, the military and the top level of the government, and the ugly point is corruption and looting. Therefore, these persistent diseases are more fatal to India's infrastructure operations in the border areas, in short, in their eyes, the government and military projects in the border areas have been regarded as a cash cow.
Then it can be inferred that the so-called construction of a "nuclear shield" advocated by the Indian media will be a marathon battle in terms of cost investment and construction progress, which is still an optimistic estimate made by India under the mastery of some technologies. India has indeed excavated many underground fortifications in the Sino-Indian border area, that is, to lay reinforced concrete pipes with a diameter of 1.8 meters to 2.4 meters in the tunnels from the border guards on the front line. For the Indian Army in the rear, it was an underground tunnel with a total length of 100 kilometers, but the overall progress of the project was extremely slow, so it was enough.
From the perspective of attacking the Indian troops in the tunnels in the front-line areas, it is completely impossible to use ground drilling shells, and it can be easily performed with 300 mm long-range fire belonging to the Tibet Military Region. For the Indian underground tunnels in the rear, the Dongfeng-15C can be used at this time, but the trouble is that the construction of the Indian underground tunnel project is too slow. In other words, we have a spear, but there are too few shields worth fighting or there are none. The construction of the "nuclear shield" advocated by the Indian media this time is built on the assumption that the opponent is using tactical nuclear weapons and ground-penetrating nuclear bombs, that is, to anticipate the enemy's leniency. But the problem is, whether we have it or not, India has to build it first, so whether India can build it or not, of course, but it will put in an incomparably long time, usually in ten years. Then, on the other hand, whether we have a ground-penetrating nuclear bomb or not, the development of weapons and equipment lies in operational needs, and the original intention of the United States to engage in a ground-drilling nuclear bomb is to effectively strike at the key targets of the hypothetical enemy located in the deep-ground protection project, so as to make up for the shortcomings of the lack of conventional precision-guided ground-penetrating bombs.
Whether China wants to do it or not also depends on its operational needs, not on technical bottlenecks. If there is a military need, it is not difficult to build a ground-penetrating nuclear bomb at the technical level, although there is still a gap between the United States and the United States, but the problem is to ensure that it is sufficient in military strikes. After all, our goal is not to be the "world's policeman", but to defend our territorial integrity and national interests from infringement. With the overall strength and time concept of China's military industry, compared with the infrastructure progress of India's crotch, is it difficult to develop a ground-penetrating nuclear bomb? Of course, it is not difficult.
Therefore, the Indian military is indeed far-sighted, always aiming at the development of the world's military first-class technology, but the steps are too big to pull the egg, and the detailed number down, the Indian military is pulling the egg in the field is too much. The so-called construction of "nuclear shields", for a long time in the future, I am afraid that it will be an embarrassing situation of "loud thunder and small raindrops", but fortunately, Indians have become accustomed to thick skin.