WASHINGTON, May 31: India has up to 150 nuclear warheads while Pakistan could only call upon a third of that total at most, Jane’s defence publications said on Thursday.

Although both sides have declined to give details of the size or capability of their arsenals, a survey by Jane’s Strategic Weapons Systems has estimated their destructive potential.

India may be able to deploy a 20 kiloton device from a Mig, Jaguar or Mirage aircraft, and could be able to deliver a bomb of a similar size on Prithvi, Dhanush and Agni ballistic missiles, the article said.

“It is estimated that India probably has between 50 and 150 nuclear warheads available,” the survey, released by the London-based group here Thursday, said.

Pakistan’s programme is less advanced, but it probably has between 25 and 50 nuclear warheads available, the report said.

“Pakistan’s planned yield for its larger nuclear weapons design was 20 to 25 kilotons providing a warhead that would probably be fitted to Shaheen and Ghauri ballistic missiles.”

The report warned that even 10 to 20 warheads could inflict devastating death tolls on any of India and Pakistan’s cities, following other assessments this week that reached a potential of millions of deaths in any nuclear conflict in South Asia.

It also warned that for both sides any nuclear conflict would be essentially self-defeating, as bombs would inflict terrible casualties on home populations as well as targeted cities.—AFP