ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s military recently deployed the Chinese-made system“at a firing range” for use in testing and developing its new missiles, hesaid.

India’s January 18 test of its Agni-V ICBM, with a range of more than5,000km (3,100 miles), is seen as a message that the country can deploy acredible nuclear deterrent against China, and Beijing is determined tocounter it.

While the Hindu-majority country’s single-warhead missiles are bigger andcover longer distances, Pakistan has focused its efforts on developingmultiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRVs), a type ofmissile-carrying several nuclear warheads that can be directed towardsdifferent targets.

The US Defence Intelligence Agency officially confirmed in March thatPakistan conducted the first test launch of its nuclear-capable Ababeelmissile in January 2017, “demonstrating South Asia’s first MIRV payload”.

Although the Ababeel missile has a range of only 2,200km, it can delivernumerous warheads to different targets. The technology has the potential tooverwhelm a missile defence system, wiping out an adversary’s nucleararsenal in one surprise attack.

There are growing concerns that MIRV technology will tip the strategicbalance between India and Pakistan and destabilise the subcontinent,according to the report in the Chinese paper.

India has so far not found success in building a system that caneffectively deliver more than one nuclear warhead at a time.

Military experts believe that it will take much more time before theAbabeel missile is ready for use in battle. It is thought to be still at anearly stage of development, with plenty of room for improvement.

It has been a long-held notion that Beijing is supporting Islamabad’smissile development programme. But solid evidence can seldom be found inthe public domain, making the CAS statement a rarity.

The Chinese team enjoyed VIP treatment during the nearly three months itspent in Pakistan assembling and calibrating the tracking system andtraining technical staff on how to use it, according to the statement.

“The system’s performance surpassed the user’s expectations,” it said,adding that it was considerably more complex than Pakistan’s home-madesystems. It did not reveal how much Pakistan paid for the system.

An optical system is a critical component in missile testing. It usuallycomes with a pair of high-performance telescopes equipped with a laserranger, high-speed camera, infrared detector and a centralised computersystem that automatically captures and follows moving targets.

The device records high-resolution images of a missile’s departure from itslauncher, stage separation, tail flame and, after the missile re-entersatmosphere, the trajectory of the warheads it releases.

The uniqueness of the Chinese-made system lay in its use of four telescopeunits, “more than normally required”, Zheng said.

Each telescope, with a detection range of several hundred kilometres, ispositioned in a different location, with their timing synchronisedprecisely with atomic clocks.

Together, the telescopes provide visual information of unprecedented detailand accuracy, which missile developers can use to improve designs andengine performance.

Using more telescopes allows the system to track more warheadssimultaneously from different angles, reducing the risk of losing a target.

Zheng said he could not elaborate further on the technology nor where inPakistan it was being used as it involved the country’s defence interests.

“We simply gave them a pair of eyes. They can use them to look at whateverthey want to see, even the Moon,” he said.

High-quality optics are essential in missile development, especially MIRVs,said Rong Jili, deputy director at the Beijing Institute of Technology’sSchool of Aerospace Engineering.

Other types of tracking devices, such as radar, can collect more precisedata at longer distances, but the Chinese-made optical system provided theintuitive, close-up look at real-life action that missile developerscraved, he said.

“Seeing it with our own eyes is completely different from mining dry data.It helps to not only diagnose problems, but also generate inspiration,”Rong said.

China has sold Pakistan many conventional weapons, including warships,fighters, short-range missiles, diesel submarines and surveillance drones.

A mainland military observer said the sale of the optical system was no bigsurprise, as it could not be used directly to develop long-range MIRVs.