KARACHI – Pakistan Navy added another feather to its cap after it testfired endogenously developed Harbah Naval Cruise Missile from PNS Himmat inArabian sea last week, leaving rivals in awe.
Though Pakistan Navy and Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) did notshare the missile’s payload capabilities, some observers, according toDefence.pk, are of view that “this system has a dual operational capabilityof striking sea & land targets with a range greater than American HarpoonMissile”.
Another Indian defence analyst, Ankit Panda in his article said, “TheHarbah is thought to be derived from Pakistan’s Babur family of cruisemissiles”. He added that Harba’s “origin in the Babur family would suggestthat it could be converted for both conventional and nuclear payloaddelivery”.
Last week, Pakistan Navy demonstrated its ability to respond to anyaggression by conducting a test fire of a cruise missile from its recentlycommissioned PNS Himmat in Arabian sea near Karachi.
The Fast Attack Craft (Missile) PNS HIMMAT, built at Karachi Shipyard &Engineering Works Limited (KS&EW), was commissioned at Pakistan NavyDockyard Karachi last year in July. PNS HIMMAT is a 63 meters long FastAttack Craft fitted with state of the art weapons and sensor.
The naval craft fired indigenously developed Harbah Naval Cruise Missile,which is a Surface to Surface anti-ship missile with Land Attackcapability. The missile accurately hit its target signifying the impressivecapabilities of Harbah Naval Weapon System.
According to US Navy, the A/U/RGM-84 Harpoon is an all- weather,over-the-horizon, anti-ship missile system that provides the American Navywith a common missile for air and ship launches.
Features
The Harpoon is active radar guidance, warhead design, low-level cruisetrajectory, and terminal mode sea-skim or pop-up maneuvers assure highsurvivability and effectiveness.
The missile is capable of being launched from surface ships, submarines,shore batteries, or aircraft (without the booster).
In late 2010, plans for an updated US Navy version of the Harpoon Block IIbegan to formalize. The Harpoon Block II+ provides a rapid-capabilityenhancement for the Navy that includes a new GPS guidance kit, reliabilityand survivability of the weapon, a new data link interface that enablesin-flight updates, improved target selectivity, an abort option andenhanced resistance to electronic countermeasures.
When fielded to the fleet in the fourth quarter of Fiscal Year 2017,Harpoon Block II+ will join the Joint Standoff Weapon C-1 as the Navy isonly two air-to-ground network-enabled weapons.