Description

The Shaheen missile IRBM series (named after a white eagle that lives in the mountains of Pakistan) was developed by National Defence Complex (NDC), a subsidiary of the NESCOM which was formed in 1993, under the guidance of Dr. Samar Mubarakmand.

Background: Indian threat

Since the early 1990s, Pakistan has faced the threat of ballistic missile attacks from India, against which it has fought several wars in the past. With the heightening of tensions in the region between China-India-Pakistan, India started on a weapons development program to build ballistic missiles using the knowledge it gained from its civilian space program. To counter this the Government of Pakistan decided to procure several Chinese M-11 missiles to deter the Indians. In May 1998 India tested nuclear weapons. Two weeks later Pakistan followed suit. With India and weapons of mass destruction and missile delivery systems, this threat intensified. Both India and Pakistan has also developed and tested missile delivery systems.

In 1999, the Kargil War between India and Pakistan became the first direct conflict between two declared nuclear powers. Even though the war had not been openly declared by either side, Nawaz Sharif, the Prime Minister of Pakistan at that time in his biography has stated that Pakistan's nuclear assets were brought to a high alert level status without actually having any operational warheads.

The Shaheen-II variant is an Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) which is the longer range variant of Shaheen-I missile. It uses a two-stage solid propellant motor and is Pakistan's largest and most capable ballistic missile. Shaheen-II was successfully test fired for the first time on March 9, 2004. At that time, National Engineering and Science Commission Chairman Samar Mubarakmand said that the missile was a two-stage rocket weighing 25 tons with a diameter of 1.4 meters and a length of 17.5 meters, and a range of 2,500 kilometers. Shaheen-II missile can carry both conventional and non-conventional payloads.

Shaheen-II is very accurate and has a CEP of 50 m. It is achieved through a post separation booster to provide terminal course correction.

Advance Re-entry vehicle to counter Ballistic Missile Defence Systems

Re-entry vehicle carried by the Shaheen-II missile have a mass of 1050kg. This re-entry vehicle mass of 1050kg carry Nuclear Warhead weight of the re-entry vehicles itself and a terminal guidance (as confirmed by Dr. Samar Mubarakmand in his interview with Hamid Mir on GEO-TV program CAPITAL TALK SPECIAL dated 05-03-2004)which is most probably radar correlation terminal seeker to achieve extremely accurate CEP in range of 30-50m similar to US PERSHING II.This re-entry vehicle unlike that of Shaheen-I does not have four moving delta control fins at the rear and small solid/liquid-propellantside thrust motors motors, which can be used to orientate the re-entry vehicle after boost burn out or before reentry to improve the accuracy by providing stabilization during the terminal phase and this can also be used to fly evasive maneuvers, making it immensely problematic to intercept Shaheen-II by any existing anti-ballistic missile defence systems. As Shaheen-II may change its trajectory several times during re-entry and even during the terminal phase, effectively preventing pre-calculated intercept points of radar systems - which is a method nearly all ABM systems using these days.This re-entry vehicle also have GPS updates to further improve its CEP.

Other missiles currently in the service of Pakistan are Hatf-I (BRBM), Abdali-I (BRBM), Ghaznavi (SRBM), Ghauri-I (MRBM), Ghauri-II (MRBM), Ghauri-III (IRBM) (under development), Shaheen-I (MRBM), Babur (cruise missile) and Ra'ad (cruise missile).

Designation	Other Name	Range	Payload	Status	Inventory
Hatf-I/IA (BRBM)	Hatf-I/IA	80/100 km	500 kg	Deployed	300+
Abdali (SRBM)	Hatf-II	180 km	500 kg	Deployed, Under production	200+
Ghaznavi (SRBM)	Hatf-III	290 km	500 kg	Deployed, Under production	~400+
Shaheen-I (MRBM)	Hatf-IV	750 km	750 kg	Deployed, Under production	~105-350
Ghauri-I (MRBM)	Hatf-V	1500 km	700-1000 kg	Deployed, Under production	~100+
Ghauri-II (MRBM)	Hatf-VA	2,400 km, More range with lighter payload.	1200 kg	Operational, Under production	~100+
Shaheen-II (IRBM)	Hatf-VI	3,800 km, More range with lighter payload.	1000+ kg	Deployed, Under production	30+
Babur (Cruise Missile)	Hatf-VII	700 km	500 kg	Deployed	100-1000
Ra'ad (Air Launched Cruise Missile)	Hatf-VIII	350 km		Tested	---
M-11 (SRBM)		300 km	500 kg	In service	Unknown

Total number of boosted nuclear warheads are 150 Note: Not every missile has nuclear payload.

Operator

• : The military of Pakistan is the only operator of the Shaheen.

References

External links

• Pakistan’s Long Range Ballistic Missiles: A View From IDEAS
• http://www.sipri.org/contents/expcon/Pakistan.pdf
• http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/pakistan/shaheen-2.htm
• How 'Shaheen' Was Developed