Pakistan Pushes To Improve Missile Strike Capability
By Usman Ansari
Published: 17 November 2008
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ISLAMABAD -
Pakistan is continuing efforts to increase the range, accuracy and lethality of its ballistic missiles while gradually switching from liquid- to solid-fueled propellants.
According to P.I. Cheema, head of the Islamabad Policy Research Institute think tank, who last year co-edited "Ballistic Missiles and South Asian Security," these efforts are sparked by the Indian threat.
"The driving force behind the program is basically India," he said. "Basically, throughout the Indo-Pak standoff, Pakistan has always been striving for parity or a qualitative edge, given the disparity we have in terms of numbers. Continuous improvisation is required to ensure the system works and remains valid, so you have to continuously update your systems."
A ballistic missile arsenal is necessary to maintain a national deterrent. The close geographical proximity of India and Pakistan would also make surprise attacks with conventionally armed missiles highly effective.
It is widely believed Pakistan obtained at least some missile-related know-how from abroad to initiate its efforts. The solid-fueled Chinese M-11 and liquid-fueled North Korean No Dong, plus associated technologies, are widely regarded to have formed the building blocks of the Pakistan program.
This has resulted in the Ghauri and Shaheen series of medium- to intermediate-range ballistic missiles. The established development/deployment pattern has seen the simpler liquid-fueled Ghauri series initially fielded, followed by the more advanced, solid-fueled Shaheen.
Liquid-fueled missiles require a longer logistics train (due to having to separately transport the fuel) and take hours to fuel, but they have performed a vital stopgap function. In this way, the 1,500-kilometer range Ghauri-I formed a stopgap until supplemented by the 750-kilometer range Shaheen-I, and then replaced by the 2,300 kilometer Ghauri-II.
With the deployment of the 2,500-kilometer Shaheen-II, development has shifted to the proposed 3,500- to 4,000-kilometer range Ghauri-III, which will be eventually replaced by the envisioned 4,000- to 4,500-kilometer Shaheen-III.
Strike at a Safe Distance
Pakistan needs such ranges so it can strike any targets within arch-rival India at a safe enough distance from the Indo-Pak border.
These increases in range have been achieved by using more efficient fuel or rocket motors, reducing the weight of the payload and simply incorporating additional stages. More ambitious advances involve the quest to increase accuracy by moving away from inertial navigation guidance systems to ones like GPS, and possibly developing multiple warhead technology.
According to defense analyst Usman Shabbir, the main force behind advances in the missile program is the National Engineering and Scientific Commission (NESCOM) defense conglomerate and its subsidiary, the National Defence Complex (NDC).
"NESCOM has been quietly and steadily refining its missile designs with special emphasis on more precision and greater range and warhead capacity," he said. "Work on MIRV [multiple independently targeted re-entry vehicle] warheads is ongoing and might be fielded in the near future on the Shaheen-II ballistic missile system.
"NESCOM is also working on new guided missile projects and in some cases helping other Pakistani research facilities with theirs. One such example was the recently tested air-launched cruise missile RAAD, developed by AWC [Air Weapons Complex] in collaboration with NESCOM," Shabbir said.
Pakistan has also developed a range of solid-fueled battlefield and short-range ballistic missiles to target high-value targets such as airfields, headquarters, troop concentrations, and ammunition and supply depots. The 290-kilometer-range Ghaznavi closely resembles the Chinese M-11 (of which Pakistan is said to have received a number in the early 1990s), and there is a possibility it is a variant of the same missile.
The 180-kilometer-range Abdali, however, is a development of Pakistan's initial indigenous efforts to develop a missile capability, the Hatf-1/1A, dating from the 1980s. These missiles can be armed with a range of conventional or nonconventional warheads.
Though the liquid-fueled missiles will eventually be retired, they may yet form the basis of a satellite-launch capability. They are ideal for such purposes because of the comparatively higher thrust they deliver.
However, Arshad Siraj, the secretary of Pakistan's national space agency, the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission, said, "At this point in time, there is no such program, though it of course would be in the long-term planning of any space agency to have this capability. Perhaps this will happen, but definitely not within the next 10 years."
This is within the timeframe of retiring the Ghauri system and developing it to launch satellites. ■
Pakistan Pushes To Improve Missile Strike Capability - Defense News
This comes from a VERY credible author.
