ISLAMABAD\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Pakistan successfully test launched a land-based anti-ship missile on Thursday, but the did not reveal its identity, possibly indicating it is a new development of its Babur land-attack cruise missile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The military’s media branch, ISPR, said the “land-based anti-ship missile” featured “advanced technology and avionics, which enable engagement of targets at sea with high accuracy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The trial, witnessed by Vice Chief of Naval Staff Adm. Khan Hasham Bin Saddique and other senior officers, was undertaken in the coastal region. A warning to shipping regarding missile tests was issued for\u00a0March 16-17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Siddique congratulated the technical team, saying the test would help improve Pakistan’s defenses and operational reach of the Navy by enabling the launch of long-range, anti-ship missiles from land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No performance details or even the name of the missile were provided, however.
Though an image released by the government’s Press Information Department appeared to show a Babur missile, its resolution was insufficient to accurately determine the missile’s identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In April last year, a shore-based anti-ship missile dubbed Zarb was test fired. It was speculated by analysts to be the Chinese C-602\/YJ-62.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, a naval industry official told Defense News at Pakistan’s biennial defense exhibition IDEAS 2016 in November that Pakistan was working on indigenous anti-ship missiles. This followed an earlier revelation buried in a Ministry of Defence Production report of development of a shipboard anti-ship missile launcher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In December, steel was cut for the first indigenous Azmat Block II missile boat, which in can be determined from the images released at the time will carry a larger anti-ship missile than the C-802A\/CSS-N-8 Saccade that arms the Block I boats.
No confirmation of this missile’s identity has been forthcoming since then, but it sparked speculation that Pakistan’s indigenous anti-ship missile efforts were perhaps more advanced than realized.
The Babur offers the quickest route to an indigenous anti-ship missile, with a range exceeding the limitations of the Missile Technology Control Regime in the same vein as the United States’ UGM\/RGM-109B (TAS-M) Tomahawk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It has already provided the basis of further developments. The updated Babur II was tested in December. The sub-launched Babur III, was successfully tested in January, enabling Pakistan to establish a second-strike capability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though the C-602 reportedly cruises at a height of 30 meters, test-area altitude for today’s test was restricted to 1,500 meters\u00a0\u2014\u00a0more akin to the higher cruise altitude of the Babur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Navy spokesman was asked to comment on the missile’s identity, but there was no reply by press time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The military\u2019s media branch said the \u201cland-based anti-ship missile\u201d featured \u201cadvanced technology and avionics, which enable engagement of targets at sea with high accuracy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":115680,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":14,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[45,11,14],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3413],"class_list":["post-58499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-global","category-land"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"CAYODU7DSBHV7NJZYEDWXWKMOM","arc_canonical_url":"\/land\/2017\/03\/16\/pakistan-conducts-anti-ship-missile-test\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n