Pakistan test fires home-grown cruise missile with enhanced range

Pakistan has "successfully" test-fired a version of its indigenously developed Babur cruise missile 1B with enhanced range.

It has a range of more than 900 kilometers, twice the distance of an earlier missile of the same model, a statement said on Tuesday.

An earlier version had a limited capacity to travel just 450 kilometres.

The missile's extended range further enhances nuclear-armed Pakistan’s military capability.

The ordinance is capable of striking both land and sea targets with "high accuracy," the statement said.

This comes days after longtime rival India tested its own next-generation nuclear-capable ballistic missile, Agni-P.

'Strategic deterrence'

Addressing the launch ceremony, Lieutenant General Nadeem Zaki Manj, who heads the Pakistani army's Strategic Plans Division, said the test would further strengthen Pakistan's "strategic deterrence."

President Arif Alvi, Prime Minister Imran Khan, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, and three services chiefs also congratulated the scientists and engineers on conduct of "successful launch."

The two arch-rivals, locked in a decades-long arms race, have fought three wars – in 1948, 1965 and 1971 – since they were partitioned in 1947, two of which were fought over the disputed Kashmir valley.

Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full. 

A small sliver of Kashmir is also held by China.

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