Pakistan test-fires nuclear-capable cruise missile
Pakistan has successfully test-fired a new indigenous nuclear-capable air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) with a range of 350 kilometers (nearly 220 miles).
According to a statement released by the Directorate of Inter-Services Public Relations, the mouthpiece of the Pakistani army, the Ra’ad (Thunder) missile blasted off on Monday, and would enable Pakistan to achieve “strategic standoff capability” both on land and at sea.
The low-altitude missile has high maneuverability and enjoys stealth technology. Ra’ad can be also armed with nuclear and conventional warheads, and has “pinpoint accuracy” according to official sources.
Director General for Pakistan’s Strategic Plan Division Lieutenant General Zubair Mahmood Hayat hailed the missile launch as a major step toward upgrading the country’s deterrence capability.
Ra’ad is designed to attack fixed enemy installations such as radar posts, command nodes and stationary surface-to-air missile launchers at stand-off range, keeping the launching aircraft away from enemy air defense systems.
The test-fire comes just two days after India performed a similar operation testing its longest-range nuclear-capable ballistic missile with the capacity to strike China and Europe and mounted on a truck that gives it a greater mobility.
The three-stage and solid propellant Agni-V (Fire-V) missile was launched from a truck-mounted canister at Wheeler Island in the Bay of Bengal, off India’s eastern coast, on January 31.
The 17-meter-long intercontinental ballistic missile has a range of more than 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles).
India has routinely carried out missile tests since it first demonstrated its nuclear weapons capability in 1998. India has been also engaged in an arms race with its neighbor Pakistan since the partition of the two countries in 1947.
Both neighbors have refused to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and other international regulatory pacts that restrict developing or testing nuclear weapons.
India considers the NPT as discriminatory, while Pakistan has indicated that it will not join the international treaty until its neighbor does so.
MP/HSN/SS
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