REPORT
lutionised. Regardless of Indian belligerence, the induction of modern fighters, AWACS surveillance planes and
upgraded air defence systems will make the skies over
Pakistan impregnable.
MISSILES
Pakistan’s missiles are the envy of the world. Possessing both liquid-fuelled and the more useful solid-fuelled
missiles, Pakistan has the entire region within range and
most importantly, all of India. With short-range battlefield
types all the way to the 3,500km Shaheen II, all of Pakistan’s missiles are field tested and operational and capable of ‘pinpoint’ accuracy. This is in marked contrast
to the Indian missile programme that has known only a
succession of humiliating and expensive failures. Recent
reports
from
India indicated
that of all of its
claimed
missile types, only
the short-range
Prithvi missile
is operational
and ready for
war. The rest
suffer from malfunctions and
defects
that
have yet to be
corrected. This
embarrassing revelation
is
particularly
painful to Indians if the Indian
missile program
was contrasted
with its Pakistani
equivalent. Pakistan
wins on all counts. Not only is it ahead, but it is widening the gap by developing longer range missiles that
go into ICBM (inter-continental) range along with more
advanced and powerful nuclear warheads. But the most
exciting development by far in the ballistic missile field
are the reliable reports that Pakistan is developing next
generation missiles in the form of MIRV (multiple independent re-entry vehicles). As the name suggests, this
allows multiple independent warheads to be deployed
from the same missile, effectively disabling any possible
anti-ballistic missile threats. It allows the devastation of
the missile to be massively multiplied without significant
increases in missile numbers. This technology is expected to be deployed on the Shaheen III and later types. In
addition to the ballistic missile arsenal, Pakistan is also
way ahead when it comes to cruise missiles. When the
now 700km range Babur was tested in 2005, the world
was stunned and Indian commentators were left catatonic. Especially considering the fact that the Babur was
produced in-country with no outside assistance save
for a stray US Tomahawk missile or two. Recently Pakistan test-fired ballistic missile Ghauri, which is capable
of carrying both conventional and nuclear warheads up
to a distance of 1,300 kilometres. The Indians have no
equivalent missile, and instead rely on the Brahmos import from Russia. The Brahmos is supersonic, but what
it makes up for in speed it loses in agility and accuracy.
While the Brahmos makes for good bollywood style PR,
the Babur, and now the air launched Ra’ad are far more
suitable for wartime, being cheaper, more flexible and
more accurate. Longer range versions are being developed, particularly anti-ship varieties that will hunt down
and sink ‘white elephants’ in the Indian ocean – the Indian surface fleet.
NUCLEAR CAPABILITY & DETERRANCE
Recent reports that the Indian nuclear of 1998 were ‘fizzles’ only confirms what the world already know ̃