The Pakistani army announced the successful test of the Shaheen-IIImedium-range ballistic missile, which can be equipped with bothconventional and nuclear warheads.
Lieutenant General Nadeem Zaki Manj, director general of the StrategicPlanning Division, said after the completion of flight tests that Pakistanwas now “ready for nuclear deterrence”.
Pakistan has a long history of nuclear deterrence. The older Pakistaniballistic missiles could also carry nuclear warheads. However, only withthe advent of Shaheen-III in Islamabad started talking about realcontainment.
The fact is that so far none of the Pakistani ballistic missiles have had asufficient range to be considered a “weapon of deterrence”. The mostlong-range rocket in the arsenal was the Ghauri liquid-fuel rocket, thefiring range of which was brought up to 1,300 kilometers. But Shaheen-IIIis already capable of delivering nuclear and conventional warheads to adistance of 2,750 kilometers. The Pakistanis began testing the new missilein 2015. However, the first launch was not successful – the rocket burnedout when entering the dense layers of the atmosphere.
For Karachi, distance is of fundamental importance – now there is not asingle corner of India left that Pakistani missiles would not have reached.Since the birth of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in 1947, India has beenconsidered its worst enemy. The British, in dividing their Indian colony intwo, took care to do so in such a way that the two countries would havesufficient reason to be at enmity with each other. Armed conflicts betweenthem took place in 1947-1948, 1965, 1971, 1999. And today it is not calm onthe border – every now and then someone shoots, even using artillery.
At one time, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto,even allowed himself a completely undiplomatic statement, in any case,these words filled with hatred for Delhi are attributed to him: “If Indiabuilds a nuclear bomb, we will eat grass and leaves, we will starve, butand get the bomb ourselves. We have no other choice.” The feeling of mutualhostility fuels the interest of the two countries in the creation ofincreasingly formidable means of mutual “deterrence and deterrence.”
Quite in the spirit of the former prime minister, General Nadeem Zaki Manjalso explained the need for a new missile for Pakistan. According to him,it is intended solely to reach the farthest regions of India and even itsislands, so that “this country cannot use them as strategic bases forcreating a second strike capability”.
The Shaheen-III missile is a two-stage medium-range solid-propellantballistic missile. Officially, it was developed by experts from thePakistani Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) and theNational Engineering and Science Commission (NESCOM), but Chinese rocketscientists actively helped.
Read Top Stories
In general, all rocket science in Pakistan was started by the French andGermans, who developed rockets in the 1970s and 1980s. A little later, theywere replaced by designers from China, they led the theme of Shaheensolid-propellant missiles, and from the DPRK – Ghauri liquid rockets.
So Shaheen-III is essentially a Chinese product and is an improvedShaheen-II missile that was tested in 2004. The rocket is 19 meters longand 1.4 meters in diameter. It can deliver a conventional warhead weighingup to a ton to the target.
The development of Shaheen-III in Pakistan began in the early 2000s inresponse to the launch of the Indian Agni-III missile, which has a range ofup to three thousand kilometers. The firing range for the Indians is alsoimportant, but not because of neighboring Pakistan. Delhi is alreadyworking on a more difficult task – “containment” of Beijing, with whichDelhi has a territorial dispute and a number of other politicalcontradictions.
At present, the missile development program in Pakistan is moving inseveral directions. Pakistani specialists, educated in Western educationalinstitutions and, still with the support of Chinese and North Koreandesigners and scientists, are engaged in increasing the range and accuracyof firing, increasing the reliability of missile weapons, and are alsodeveloping promising medium-range ballistic missiles. The government isalso making efforts to develop its own research and production and testingbase. The goal is to reduce dependence on foreign connoisseurs.
Source:link