As for these "programs", a friend from India told me about a program that India had for developing RPVs (remotely piloted vehicles). After pouring billions and spending several years, all they could do was to build small model airplanes that would crash and burn.
After many many years, they could get successive trial flights to go for 100, 200, 300, 500 feet and just when they thought that they had it figured, the next trial would crash after 80 feet! Back to the drawing board! And after another couple of decades, they still have nothing worthwhile. The latest versions probably go for a few kilometers, doing little more than staying afloat, before Pakistani AA fire blows them to smithereens.
So, yes, they had a program to make them airplanes. But it was a joke. Merely having a program, even a nuclear program, doesn't make anybody a threat. For all you know, the program could be a bunch of bureaucrat "scientists" sitting and reading papers on nuclear physics from 9 to 5 and then heading home, and collecting a nice paycheck at the end of the month... |
