Pakistan has acquired but not declared
its capability to produce anti-tank guided missiles as well
as short range surface-to-air missiles whose flight tests
have also been conducted quietly, said Brig Naeem Ahmad
Salik, Director Arms Control and Disarmament wing at the
JSHQ Strategic Plans Division.
The soldier-turned-academician,
speaking on ‘Pakistan’s missile programme’,
defended the country against allegation of building platforms
on foreign technologies. He observed, "India’s
Prithvi is a derivative of Russian SA-2 missile while
Agni’s solid fuel stages are based on US scout Rocket
technology while it employs hydraulic cranes of German
origin for bringing it into the firing position."
Similarly, he pointed out,
India has imported and installed Russian Club missiles
on its Kilo class submarines as well as surface vessels
besides deploying Israeli Barak missiles on its ships.
"The joint Indo-Russian Brahmos is predominantly
a Russian Missile," he stated in the presence of
leading Indian strategists. He said the Indians only claim
to have provided the guidance systems. It therefore is
clearly unjustified and hypocritical to single out Pakistan
for raising all kinds of accusing fingers.
Brig Salik said there is
a pervasive myth that whereas certain countries have depended
on imports of components and technology to develop their
missile programmes there are those who are self-reliant
and have developed their missile technology indigenously.
He rejected the argument, saying that there is, however,
no evidence to prove this contention.
"History bears testimony
to the fact that Germany is probably the only nation whose
missile programme can be classified as indigenous,"
he exclaimed. He also reminded the international conference
of the fact that at the end of WW-II, the German scientists
and engineers who had worked on the V-1 and V-II systems
were taken away by Americans as well as Russians to set
up their respective missile programmes.
Moreover, he said, Israeli’s
Jericho missiles are based on French technology while
the Arrow missile has benefited from US technology as
well as money. "South Korea converted Nike Hercules
surface-to-air missile supplied by the US into surface
to surface missiles," he added.
Regarding Pakistan’s
programme, Salik said Islamabad would continue to pursue
the development of both liquid and solid fuelled missile
system since "it does not make sense to abandon any
programme after having spent scarce research and development
resources".
He added that at least for
the near term Pakistan was likely to continue fielding
a variety of systems with varying range-payload combinations
to retain flexibility of employment. On Indian desire
to attain the Anti-Ballistic Missiles (ABMs), Salik stated
that they could adversely affect all potential restraint
measures.
"Introduction of ABMs
by India will not only have a destabilising effect on
the evolving nuclear deterrent environment it will also
trigger a costly and futile missile race in the region,"
he said. The problem with the ABM systems is that they
create misperceptions by promoting proclivities for greater
risk taking during series and also lead towards pre-emption
tendencies with very serious repercussion for deterrence
stability, remarked the arms control expert.
He even doubted the operational
utility of these systems. "The instability to test
these under realistic operational environments is in particular
a major handicap". He also pointed to serious technical
questions specific to the South Asian security environment
particularly "the extremely short time of flight
of missiles coupled with deficiencies in real time intelligence
and early warning systems raises serious doubts about
the efficacy of these systems in South Asia".
