Pakistan Conducts Successful Flight Test of The Shaheen-III Ballistic Missile
Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistani army’s media arm, announced on April 9, that the Shaheen-III surface-to-surface ballistic missile had completed a successful flight test. The test’s details and video footage were published by ISPR. The purpose of the test, according to the post, was to reaffirm the missile system’s design and technical parameters.
Lieutenant General Nadeem Zaki Manj, Director General of the Strategic Plans Division, Dr. Raza Samar, Chairman of NESCOM, Lieutenant General Muhammad Ali, Commander of the Army Strategic Forces Command, and senior officers, scientists, and engineers from the Strategic Plans Division were present for the flight test of the Shaheen-III. Lieutenant General Nadeem Zaki Manj praised the scientists and engineers and expressed his full confidence in Pakistan’s nuclear deterrence capability.
The Shaheen III missile, developed by the Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) and NESCOM, is an advanced variant of the Shaheen-II missile, which was first tested on March 9, 2004. The Shaheen-III missile is a two-stage solid-fuel medium-range ballistic missile developed by Pakistan. The missile has a range of 2,750 kilometers and can carry both nuclear and conventional warheads. This range makes it the longest-range missile in Pakistan’s strategic arsenal. The Shaheen III missile was first tested in 2015, following a development program that began in the early 2000s in response to India’s Agni-III missile. The missile, which was first displayed during a military parade in March 2016, has a length of 19 meters and a diameter of 1.4 meters.
The last test of the Shaheen-III missile was carried out in early 2021. Since then, the Pakistani army has conducted successful tests of the Ghaznavi (Hatf III) missile with a range of 290-300 kilometers, the Shaheen 1A missile with a range of 900 kilometers, the Ghauri (Hatf-V) missile with a range of 1300 kilometers, the Fatah-1 Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (G-MLRS) and the Babur Cruise Missile.