Pakistani missile research and development program
The Hatf Program
The Hatf program was managed by the
Program overview
The Pakistani ministries initially avoided to fund the civilian space program and space education even there exist an opportunity to acquire the education through cooperation with the United States.: 234 [7]
It was in 1987 when the planning and initiatives for the program began when the military assessments revealed the existence of India's
The feasibility of the program proved to be much more difficult than the nuclear weapons program since the space program was never adequately funded nor the
Contrary to United States acknowledgement that Pakistan's Hatf-I project was derived from its cooperation on sounding rockets, the testing of Hatf was shelved until proper education was sought.: 236 [7] Under Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the Hatf program was aggressively sought who began to address the missile gap with India in 1993.[8][10] The Benazir Bhutto government entered negotiation in engineering education and training on rockets with China and later North Korea.[11] It is documented by the Pakistani military officials that Pakistan had paid stacks of cash payments through its State Bank to China and North Korea in order to learn practical aerospace engineering, controls engineering, programming and space sciences well before the Hatf program became feasible in early 2000s: 240–245 .[7][12]
Despite the constraints and limitations, the Hatf program was made feasible and the former
The program eventually expended and diversified with the successful development of the cruise missiles and other strategic level arsenals in the early 2000s.[15]
Codenames
The Pakistani military issued its entire weapon system with a single military designation series: Hatf (
The unofficial names, such as
Military designation | Codename | Deployment | Unit | Branch |
---|---|---|---|---|
Hatf-I | Hatf | 1992 | Army Strategic Forces Command | Pakistan Army |
Hatf-II | Abdali | 2002 | Army Strategic Forces Command | Pakistan Army |
Hatf-III | Ghaznavi | 2004 | Army Strategic Forces Command | Pakistan Army |
Hatf-IV | Shaheen | 2003 | Air Force Strategic Forces Command | Pakistan Air Force |
Hatf-V | Ghauri | 2003 | Army Strategic Forces Command | Pakistan Army |
Hatf-VI | Shaheen |
2011 | Air Force Strategic Forces Command | Pakistan Air Force |
Hatf-VII | Babur | 2011 | Army Strategic Forces Command Naval Strategic Forces Command |
Pakistan Army Pakistan Navy |
Hatf-VIII | Ra'ad | 2012 | Air Force Strategic Forces Command | Pakistan Air Force |
Hatf-XI | Nasr' | 2011 | Army Strategic Forces Command | Pakistan Army |
Battle-range system
The
Despite claims of success by Pakistani administration, the Pakistani military admissions indicated that inaccuracy of the missile system that led to the shelving of the program until 2000 when it entered finally in the military service.: 235–245
Short–medium range development
The
In 1995, the program on developing the short-range missiles based on solid fuel platform began with China agreeing to provide technological assistance in terms or providing education on aerospace and controls engineering at their universities.: 235–244
During this time, the Shaheen program was widely pursued and developed by the National Defence Complex (NDC) for the operational deployment with the Pakistan Air Force, which was funding and sponsoring the Shaheen program.[23] Outside of any foreign assistance to maintain the secrecy of the Shaheen, the program faced many technological set backs and learning from India's developmental experience of the Agni-II— the Shaheen program continued to evolve and produced the first prototype for the Air Force in 1999.[23] The Shaheen program proved sustainable and produced improved variants for the Pakistan Air Force's deployment.[24] The Shaheen program was developed with MIRV capability to address missile gap and to counter India's missile defense.[24][25]
The Hatf program did not restrict to solid-fuel engines but diversified to learn about liquid-fuel technology, when this program was delegated to
With North Korean engineers ejected from the program after the first flight in 1998, the
Cruise missile technology
Development on understanding and developing cruise missile technology began when India started its
For Pakistan, it took years until 2005 to make its cruise missile program feasible when the first Babur (Pakistani military designation: Hatf-VII) was test-fired by the army, amid surprising the United States.[29] In 2007, the Pakistan announced the development and test-firing of Ra'ad (Pakistani military designation: Hatf-VIII), which validates the air-launched capability of Pakistan's cruse missiles.[30]
In 2017, Pakistan conducted a successful launch of the Babur-III missile from an underwater mobile platform– a long desired and sought-after capability for the Navy that it effectively established Pakistan's
See also
References
- ^ a b "Pakistan Derives its First "Hatf" Missiles from Foreign Space Rockets". Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control. 1 October 1995. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Lodhi, Lt.Gen. S.F.S. (31 May 1998). "Pakistan's Missile Technology". Defence Journal, 1998. Archived from the original on 21 February 1999. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
- ^ Daheem, Mohammad (18 October 2012). "Pakistan's missile capability". Pakistan Observer, 2012. Pakistan Observer. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
- ISBN 189782923X. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
- ^ "Pakistan Missile Milestones - 1994". Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control. 1 September 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
- ^ Hans M. Kristensen, Robert S. Norris & Julia Diamond (2018) Pakistani nuclear forces, 2018, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 74:5, 348-358
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8047-8480-1. Retrieved 10 September 2023.
- ^ ISBN 8170247527. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
- ^ Beg, M.A. (6 April 1998). "Ghauri won't rock the region". Dawn newspapers, 1998. Dawn newspapers. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
- ISBN 3039103822.
- ^ Collins, Catherine. "Tale of Two Bhuttos". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
- ISBN 978-0143064794.
- ^ MacFarquhar, Emily. "Benazir and the Bomb". Alicia Patterson Foundation. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
- ^ "Aitzaz calls for introduction of fresh blood in PPP". GEO TV. 18 October 2014. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
- ^ "Pakistan Launches Indigenous ALCM Again | Defense: Aviation International News". ainonline.com. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
- ^ a b c Abbas, Zaffar (28 May 2002). "Pakistan's missile symbolism". BBC, Pakistan Bureau. BBC. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
- ISBN 978-1-317-67600-3. Retrieved 10 September 2023.
- ^ a b "Timelime of Missiles". Pakistan Defence Consortium. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
- ^ "Pakistan derives its first 'Hatf' missiles from foreign space rockets," The Risk Report, October 1995, p. 5
- ^ "MissileThreat :: Hatf 1 :: Missiles of the World". Archived from the original on 8 October 2007. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
- ^ a b c d "Hatf 3 (Ghaznavi) (Pakistan), Offensive weapons". Janes. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
- Lieutenant General Safdar F.S. (May 1998). "Pakistan's Missile Technology". Head of Integrated Missile Research and Development Programme (IMRDP). Defence Journal of Pakistan. Archived from the originalon 2 November 2015. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
- ^ a b Khalid, Hanif. "How 'Shaheen' Was Developed". Khalid Hanif, original article at Jang Newspapers. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
- ^ a b "Pakistan Seeks To Counter Indian ABM Defenses". missilethreat.com. Missile Threat. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
- Dawn newspaper. Retrieved 24 January 2017.
- ^ surface to surface missile, Hatf-V (Ghauri), 6 April 1998
- ^ a b c Ansari, Usman (28 May 2012). "Pakistan Test-Fires Medium-Range Ballistic Missile". Defence News. Defence News. Archived from the original on 19 July 2013. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
- ^ "Musharraf stopped funds for Ghauri-III missile saying: "Do you want to destroy Israel"". The News International (thenews.com.pk). 28 May 2011. Archived from the original on 1 October 2011. Retrieved 28 May 2011.
- ^ "Pakistan test-fires nuclear-capable Babur missile with 700 km range". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 18 September 2012.
- ^ "Pak test fires Hatf VII nuclear missile". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 5 June 2012.
- ^ "Pakistan fires 'first submarine-launched nuclear-capable missile'". Reuters. 10 January 2017. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
- ^ "Pakistan test-fires first submarine cruise missile Babur-3". AryNews.tv. 9 January 2017. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
- ^ "Pakistan 'launches first cruise missile from submarine'". BBC News. 9 January 2017. Retrieved 26 July 2017.