From parity to power gap: How India outclasses Pakistan in nuclear and military might

File Photo - A visitor looks at the 155mm tank shells kept on display at the Milipol India 2023 Internal Homeland Security Expo in New Delhi on October 26, 2023.

As South Asia remains one of the world’s most volatile nuclear flashpoints, Islamabad and its backers continue to peddle the myth of strategic parity between India and Pakistan. However, a closer look at the latest data from the SIPRI Yearbook 2025 lays bare a stark reality: India is surging ahead, modernising, diversifying and strengthening its nuclear and military arsenal, while Pakistan is stuck in a cycle of stagnation, dependency, and doctrinal recklessness.

While Pakistan clings to tactical nuclear weapons and outdated deterrence postures, India is building credible second-strike capabilities, acquiring cutting-edge systems, and reshaping its military for 21st-century threats.

Nuclear arsenals: where India and Pakistan stand

At the start of 2025, India was estimated to have 180 nuclear warheads, while Pakistan had slightly fewer at 170. On paper, the numbers appear close, but this superficial parity masks Pakistan’s deeper vulnerabilities.

India's program is technology-driven; it is moving towards a credible minimum deterrent with a focus on second-strike capability via nuclear submarines and canisterised missiles. Pakistan, by contrast, relies heavily on tactical nuclear weapons and first-use threats, underscoring a fundamentally destabilising doctrine.

“India is believed to have once again slightly expanded its nuclear arsenal in 2024 and continued to develop new types of nuclear delivery system. India’s new ‘canisterized’ missiles, which can be transported with mated warheads, may be capable of carrying nuclear warheads during peacetime, and possibly even multiple warheads on each missile, once they become operational,” SIPRI states.

Moreover, SIPRI notes that India is pursuing the development of MIRV (multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle) capabilities, which Pakistan does not yet possess in any deployable form. This puts Pakistan at a technological disadvantage, reducing its deterrent’s credibility in the face of Indian advancements.

Modernisation: India’s strategic focus

India is one of the most active modernisers of its military forces, including its nuclear arsenal. This includes advanced missile systems like Agni-VI with MIRV potential, sea-based deterrents through Arihant-class nuclear submarines, and indigenously developed long-range precision strike capabilities.

Meanwhile, Pakistan is largely dependent on China for military hardware and missile tech. Its inability to indigenously produce advanced platforms keeps its strategic autonomy minimal and its deterrent vulnerable to geopolitical shifts.

India: A top arms exporter

According to SIPRI, India was the second-largest arms importer globally in 2020–2024, accounting for 8.3 per cent of global imports, just behind Ukraine (8.8 per cent), which has been at war with Russia since 2022. Pakistan trailed significantly at 4.6 per cent.

But unlike Pakistan, India’s arms imports are part of a structured modernisation strategy aimed at enhancing air dominance with Rafales and Tejas jets, upgrading naval capabilities through Scorpène-class submarines and aircraft carriers, and fortifying missile defence with S-400 Triumf systems from Russia.

While critics often view high imports as a sign of dependence, in India’s case, it reflects rapid capability acquisition aligned with indigenisation through initiatives like ‘Make in India’. India’s defence spending and procurement are also transparent and rules-based, in sharp contrast to Pakistan’s shadowy military-industrial complex dominated by the military elite.

India vs Pakistan: A look at military expenditure

India's military spending in 2024 was nearly nine times that of Pakistan's expenditure, according to SIPRI. The country’s military expenditure, the fifth largest globally, grew by 1.6% to $86.1 billion while Pakistan spent $10.2 billion.