Pakistani missile research and development program

The Hatf Program (Urdu: حتف; Trans. ḥāṯaʿf, meaning: Target ) was the classified program by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Pakistan for the comprehensive research and the development of guided missiles. Initiatives began in 1986–87 that also received support from Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in a direct response to India's equivalent program in 1989.

The Hatf program was managed by the Ministry of Defence though the policy guidance came directly from the Army HQ of the Pakistan Army in Rawalpindi..

Program overview


The Pakistani ministries initially avoided to fund the civilian space program and space education even there exist an opportunity to acquire the education through cooperation with the United States.

It was in 1987 when the planning and initiatives for the program began when the military assessments revealed the existence of India's missile program. In a direct response to India, the program was hastily launched by General M. A. Beg, then-army chief, who wanted this program to be led by the Space Research Commission (SUPARCO).

The feasibility of the program proved to be much more difficult than the nuclear weapons program since the space program was never adequately funded nor the engineering education on control systems and aerodynamics was ever sought after. India, which already had modest knowledge based on Russian rockets, was already ahead of attaining the technology from its own and derived its own outside of any foreign cooperation. Furthermore, the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) formed by the G7 in 1987 had hampered any efforts by Pakistan to acquire any parts for its program. Eventually, Ministry of Defence overtook the Hatf program who delegated to its weapons laboratories and agencies to collaborate with Space Research Commission on the feasibility of the program ingeniously. In 1989, India test fired its first variant of Prithvi missile, which it developed very skillfully and independently since 1983. In 1989, the Space Research Commission test fired the Hatf, which the Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto immediately declared the test as "successful" in its first trial. The U.S. military, on the other hand, dismissed the results when the American The Pentagon (U.S. military HQ) had seen this missile as "inaccurate battlefield missile."

Contrary to United States acknowledgement that Pakistan's Hatf-I project was derived from its cooperation on sounding rockets, the testing of Hatf was shelved until proper education was sought. Under Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the Hatf program was aggressively sought who began to address the missile gap with India in 1993. The Benazir Bhutto government entered negotiation in engineering education and training on rockets with China and later North Korea. It is documented by the Pakistani military officials that Pakistan had paid stacks of cash payments through its State Bank to China and North Korea in order to learn practical aerospace engineering, controls engineering, programming and space sciences well before the Hatf program became feasible in early 2000s.

Despite the constraints and limitations, the Hatf program was made feasible and the former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is described as a political "architect of Pakistan's missile technology" by Emily MacFarquhar of Alicia Patterson Foundation. At the federal level, the acknowledgement has been in 2014, when former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani said, "Benazir Bhutto gave this country the much-needed missile technology".

The program eventually expended and diversified with the successful development of the cruise missiles and other strategic level arsenals in the early 2000s.

Codenames
The Pakistani military issued its entire weapon system with a single military designation series: Hatf (Trans. Target), for the surface-to-surface guided ballistic missiles. This designation was selected by the research and development committee at the Army GHQ of the Pakistan Army that provided the policy guidance to the program. In Turkish, the hatf meaning "Target" or "Aim point" refers to the sword of Muhammad which was used in many of his military conquests, and was believed to never miss its target.

The unofficial names, such as Ghauri, Ghaznavi, and Abdali, were the codenames for developing projects to the defense contractors that were given the names of historical figures in the Islamic conquest of South Asia. The contractors were issued the project names after the Turkish nomads invaded India from the historical region of Greater Khorasan.. Besides the cruise missile systems, the ballistics, ranged weapons, and artillery systems are managed and control under the strategic command of the Pakistan Army.

Battle-range system
The Hatf-I (English tr.: "Target") was the first project that was developed under this program in 1987, and the system is deployed under the Pakistan Army. The Hatf-I is a battlefield range system developed by the Space Research Commission, together with the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), oversaw the development of the first system that was seen as direct competition with Indian Prithvi system.

Despite claims of success by Pakistani administration, the Pakistani military admissions indicated that inaccuracy of the missile system that led to the shelving of the program until 2000 when it entered finally in the military service. The Western assessments believed this system to influence directly from American and French space rockets that Space Research Commission studied as part of its original civilian space program. Lessons and experiences learn from the Hatf-I eventually led to the designs and development of the Nasr in 2011, which is widely believed to be a delivery system for small tactical nuclear weapons. The battlefield range system is exclusively designed and deployed under the services of the Pakistan Army.

Short–medium range development


The Zia administration was able to attained former Soviet Scud technology from the former Afghan National Army but it was very little that the country's scientists could learn from short-range missile system. It was in 1993 when the Benazir Bhutto government began seeking the procurement of DF-11 (Pakistani military designation: M11) from China which it succeeded in procuring in secrecy. The Chinese short-range missile, however, are not nuclear weapons delivery capable, and any attempts to reverse engineer the Chinese missiles failed the delivery mechanism of the system.

In 1995, the program on developing the short-range missiles based on solid fuel platform began with China agreeing to provide technological assistance in terms or providing education on aerospace and controls engineering at their universities. Facing with deployment limitations of M-11, the Abdali program was designed and made feasible for the Space Research Commission in 1995, whilst the Ghaznavi program was delegated to National Defence Complex, which derived the program from M-11 designs. The rocket engine for Ghaznavi tested in 1997 and is stated to have been a major break-through. The DESTO took initiatives of designing five different types of warheads for the Ghaznavi and Abdali can be delivered with a CEP of 0.1% at 600 km. The Pakistani military officials have refuted the claims of Ghaznavi being developed in China and stressed that the entire system was designed in Pakistan amid in secrecy.

During this time, the Shaheen program was widely pursued and developed by the National Defence Complex (NDC) for the operational deployment with the Pakistan Air Force, which was funding and sponsoring the Shaheen program. Outside of any foreign assistance to maintain the secrecy of the Shaheen, the program faced many technological set backs and learning from India's developmental experience of the Agni-II— the Shaheen program continued to evolve and produced the first prototype for the Air Force in 1999. The Shaheen program proved sustainable and produced improved variants for the Pakistan Air Force's deployment. The Shaheen program was developed with MIRV capability to address missile gap and to counter India's missile defense.

The Hatf program did not restrict to solid-fuel engines but diversified to learn about liquid-fuel technology, when this program was delegated to KRL, also in 1995. Codename Ghauri, the technology for this program came directly from North Korea with support coming from the Benazir Bhutto's ministry. It is well documented by the Pakistani military admissions that the Finance ministry under Benazir Bhutto administration had paid stacks of cash (as North Korea was interested in monetary values rather than technology barter trade) to North Korea to facilitate North Korean scientists to come to Pakistani universities to teach aerospace engineering discipline. Designed under watchful guidance of North Korean engineers, the originally Ghauri, which was based on entirely on Rodong-1, took its first flight in 1998 but the engine failed during its flight and the design was flawed as the rocket burned up on re-entry during its first test flight.

With North Korean engineers ejected from the program after the first flight in 1998, the KRL was forced to work on reverse engineering, and had to redesign the entire weapon system. With assistance from the DESTO and NDC, the first missile Ghauri–I was made feasible for deployment in 2004.

Cruise missile technology


Development on understanding and developing cruise missile technology began when India started its missile defense program in 1998. During the tense environment between Sharif administration, Vajpayee premiership and Clinton administration, the development of cruise missile was started with India acquiring the S-300 Grumble from Russia while attempting to negotiate with the United States to induct the Patriot PAC-3 to supplement its Grumble system— all of these development had adversely affected Pakistan's land-based deterrence mechanism.

For Pakistan, it took years until 2005 to make its cruise missile program feasible when the first Babur (Pakistani military designation: Hatf-VII) was test-fired by the army, amid surprising the United States. In 2007, the Pakistan announced the development and test-firing of Ra'ad (Pakistani military designation: Hatf-VIII), which validates the air-launched capability of Pakistan's cruse missiles.

In 2017, Pakistan conducted a successful launch of the Babur-III missile from an underwater mobile platform– a long desired and sought-after capability for the Navy that it effectively established Pakistan's second-strike capability from sea.