Pakistan Navy Tests Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile ‘SMASH’

After embarking on its large-scale modernization and fleet growth program, the PN got down to construct its AShM stock. It used to primarily depend on subsonic-cruising AShMs, such because the RGM-84 Harpoon, MBDA Exocet, and Chinese language C-802. Not solely was the PN’s missile combine restricted to subsonic designs, however all of its munitions had been imported from the US, France, or China. 

This modified in 2016, when the PN test-fired the ‘Zarb’, a shore-based subsonic AShM. This was the primary time the PN had deployed a regionally constructed AShM. In 2017, the PN introduced that it test-fired the Babur 3, a submarine-launched cruise missile (SLCM) based mostly on the Babur-series land-attack cruise missile (LACM).

The ultimate piece of the PN’s indigenous subsonic assault functionality was the Harbah, a dual-role AShM/LACM that was test-fired in 2018. The export variant of the Harbah has a said vary of 280 km, however the AShM’s attain was seemingly capped for compliance with the Missile Expertise Management Regime (MTCR). Contemplating how the Babur 3 (which has dimension restrictions for deployment from submarine torpedo tubes) provides a said vary of 450 km, the Harbah AShM/LACM ought to match, if not exceed, 450 km. 

The subsequent step of the PN’s missile improvement program was to induct supersonic and hypersonic techniques…