Pakistan test fires nuclear-capable cruise missile
PAKISTAN: Pakistan on Tuesday successfully test fired a
nuclear-capable cruise missile for the second time, the military said.
The terrain-hugging Hatf VII Babur missile has a range of 500
kilometres (310 miles) and can carry all kinds of warheads, a senior
military official told AFP.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf witnessed the launch and
congratulated the scientists involved, a military statement said.
"The nation was proud of its scientists and engineers, who had once
again demonstrated their ability to master rare technologies with ease
and professionalism," a military statement quoted Musharraf as saying.
"The strategic programme, which had come to symbolize the nation's
resolve for its security, will continue to go from strength to strength
with credible minimum deterrence as the cornerstone," Musharraf said.
Pakistan's foreign office said it did not inform its nuclear-armed
rival India about the launch. "We don't have to inform them as we have
an agreement which includes only ballistic missile tests about which the
two countries inform each other," Pakistan foreign ministry spokeswoman
Tasnim Aslam told AFP.
"We have proposed to India to include cruise missile tests but they
did not agree," she said. Pakistan again proposed to India that cruise
missile tests should be included when the countries' foreign secretaries
met in New Delhi in January this year, she said.
"We have yet to hear from them," she added.
A military statement said that "all phases of the planned trajectory
were extremely successful and the missile impacted with pinpoint
accuracy."
The indigenously developed Babur named after an ancient Mughal
emperor was tested for the first time in August 2005, it said.
The cruise missile would in future also be capable of being placed in
submarines and on surface ships, the statement said.
"The Babur, which has near stealth capabilities, is a low flying,
terrain hugging missile with high maneuverability, pin-point accuracy
and radar avoidance features," the statement said. Islamabad, Tuesday,
AFP |