Nuclear-Armed US Security Partner Unveils New Missile
Pakistan stimulates its precision capacity with a new terrestrial cruise missile, improving its conventional arsenal while tensions with India threaten a renewed conflict.
The Pakistani army unveiled its Fatah – IV missile and the Timur drone for the first time this week during a public exhibition, according to the Pakistani website Ary News.
Nowsweek contacted the Pakistani government to comment.
Why it matters
The new weapons, whose development was already revealed last year, occurred shortly after a senior Pakistani military official has published a new threat to his India rival during a visit to the United States, and as Islamabad seeks closer ties with Washington in the aftermath of his military confrontation with New Delhi in May for Pahalgam’s terrorist attack.
The Fatah – IV, alongside nuclear and ballistic missiles, strengthens the conventional arsenal of Pakistan and improves its ability to project power and dissuade opponents into recurring Indian -Pakistani clashes.
Ghumlam Rasool / AFP / Getty Images
What to know
The Fatah-IV, which has an effective scope of 700 kilometers, more than 400 miles, was revealed before the independence day celebrations in Islamabad on August 14, according to local media. The missile derives from the Fatah series, part of its strategic deterrence against India.
According to the Stimson Center’s thinking group, Pakistan has deployed short-range ballistic missiles conventionally against India for the first time in May, using Fatah-I and Fatah-II systems, and perhaps other types of missiles, during the conflict in the disputed region of cashmere.
The Fatah – IV packed the gap between tactical and strategic cruise missiles, completing its Babur, nuclear compatible with similar low altitude flight characteristics, according to researchers. He is able to bypass advanced air defenses and strike high -value and mobile targets.
The accent put by Pakistan on missiles and conventional drones makes Indian air defense systems such as the Russian manufacturing S-400 vulnerable to its asymmetrical attacks, Frank O’Donnell, a non-resident scholarship holder at the Stimson Center, said last year.
What specialists say
Defense Security Asia reported: “Pakistan’s investment in the Fatah series reflects a deliberate change towards high -end battlefield effects – allowing precision fires to prolonged ranges without stepping up in the war of ballistic missiles. These weapons are not simply deterrent but tools of active fighting, to redefine the conventional balance between Islamabad and the new conflict of high precision congress.
The army recognition group reported: “Compared to Nirbhay of India, which has an announced scope of approximately 1,000 km but which has experienced development delays, the Fatah-4 is distinguished by the service quickly and already integrated into the army units.”
What happens next
The unveiling by Pakistan of new weapons systems is supposed to be a military signal to neighboring India, which is likely to disclose its own capacities of correspondence in response.
