The fact that Musharaff may have moved some of his Paki nukes westward towards the Afghan border is a bit nervous-making--what with all those caves and Al-Qaida characters hopping around the mountain passes.
It is extremely difficult to estimate the number and types of nuclear weapons in Pakistan's arsenal. Outside experts estimate the country has between 24 and 48 nuclear weapons. The weapons are based on an implosion design that uses a solid core of highly enriched uranium, requiring an estimated 15–20 kilograms per warhead. Seismic measurements of the tests conducted on May 28 and 30, 1998, suggest that the yields were on the order of 9–12 kilotons and 4–6 kilotons respectively, lower than Islamabad announced. Chinese tests in the 1960s used similar designs, and it is suspected that the Chinese assisted Pakistan's program in the 1970s and 1980s.
It is unclear how much weapons-grade uranium Pakistan has. For two decades, Pakistan pursued a gas centrifuge uranium-enrichment method to produce fissile material for its nuclear weapons, at what is now known as the Abdul Qadeer Khan Research Laboratories in Kahuta. By the early 1990s, some 3,000 centrifuges were thought to be operating. Although Pakistan declared a moratorium on the production of highly enriched uranium in 1991, experts think it resumed production well before the May 1998 nuclear tests. The most reliable estimate is that Pakistan has produced enough fissile material for 30–52 nuclear weapons.
Like other nations that have developed nuclear weapons, Pakistan does not seem content with a first-generation nuclear weapon and may be pursuing other designs and refinements. The 40- to 50-megawatt thermal Khushab reactor, at Joharabad in the Khushab district of Punjab, can produce weapons-grade plutonium. Loading the reactor's target materials with lithium 6 could produce tritium. Plutonium separation reportedly takes place at the "New Labs" reprocessing plant next to the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (Pinstech) in Rawalpindi. Through these efforts Pakistan seems to be positioning itself to increase and enhance its nuclear forces significantly in coming years.
The assembled nuclear bombs and/or bomb components for these planes may be stored in an ammunition depot near Sargodha. Alternatively, the weapons could be stored at other operational or satellite bases further to the west, near the Afghanistan border,where the F-16s would pick up their bombs.