RAWALPINDI: Pakistan conducted a successful flight test of the indigenously developed Air Launched Cruise Missile Hatf-VIII (Ra’ad) Thursday, Geo News reported.
According to an ISPR statement, Ra’ad Missile has the range of over 350 km that can enable Pakistan to achieve strategic standoff capability on land and at Sea.
‘Cruise Technology’ is extremely complex and has been developed by only a few countries in the world. The state of the art Ra’ad Cruise Missile with Stealth Capabilities is a low altitude, terrain hugging missile with high maneuverability, and can deliver nuclear and conventional warheads with pin point accuracy.
A major additional feature of today’s test was the effective employment of the National Command Authority’s fully automated Strategic Command and Control Support System (SCCSS).
It has enabled robust command and control capability of all strategic assets with round the clock situational awareness in a digitized network centric environment to decision makers at National Command Centre (NCC).
The system has the added capability of real time remote monitoring of missile flight path.
The successful launch has been commended by the President, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee who have congratulated the scientists and engineers on their outstanding achievement.
AFP adds: Pakistan on Thursday tested a fourth nuclear-capable cruise missile since India launched a new long-range weapon capable of hitting China last month.
On April 20, India successfully test fired the Agni V capable of delivering a one-tonne nuclear warhead anywhere in rival China, marking a major advance in its military capabilities.