Pakistan test fires Shaheen-2 long-range missile

Islamabad, Pakistan: Pakistan's military said that it had successfully test-fired a Shaheen-2 long-range ballistic missile on Saturday. The missile was launched from an undisclosed location.

The Shaheen-2 has a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,245 miles) and is capable of carrying conventional and nuclear warheads. The Shaheen-2, by common reckoning, is a copy of the Chinese M-18, originally displayed at the 1987 Beijing air show as a two-stage missile.

The launch takes place ahead of a likely launch of a Agni-III ballistic missile by India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) sometime towards the end of this month. In the tit-for-tat nature of a relationship that both countries deploy towards each other, such tests either immediately precede, or follow, a test by the other.

Agni-III is India's most powerful, surface-to-surface missile, and can carry nuclear warheads to a range of more than 3,500 km.

The Pakistani missile launch was also witnessed by a civilian authority, namely the new prime minister, Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, who congratulated the scientists and engineers for ''achieving an important milestone in Pakistan's quest for sustaining strategic balance in South Asia,'' according to the military statement.

It quoted Gilani as saying that the defense needs of the country would remain a ''high priority'' for his elected government.

Saturday's test came about two months after Pakistan test-fired a short-range Ghaznavi missile with a range of 290 kilometers (180 miles). In the same period, India has test-fired a shorter range version of the Agni, the Agni-I, which has a range of 700km, as well as a sea-to-land version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile and also of a K-15 (Sagarika) missile from a submerged pontoon.

The Agni-III is India's most powerful, surface-to-surface missile, and can carry nuclear warheads to a range of more than 3,500 km. It is a two-stage missile that weighs 48.3 tonnes, is 16.7 metres in length and can carry a warhead weighing up to 1.5 tonnes over a distance of more than 3,500 km.

When it takes place, it will be the third launch of the Agni-III.