Everything about Shaheen Missile totally explained
The
Shaheen missile series (named after a white eagle that lives in the mountains of Pakistan) was developed by
National Defence Complex (NDC), a subsidiary of the
NESCOM which was formed in 1993, under the guidance of Dr.
Samar Mubarakmand.
Background
Since the early 1990s, Pakistan has faced the threat of ballistic missile attacks from India, which it has attacked several times in the past. With the heightening of tensions in the region, India obtained blueprints from Russia on how to build ballistic missiles. Pakistan felt under threat therefore the Government of Pakistan decided to procure several Chinese M-11 missiles to counter the Russian proliferation to India and to protect Islamabad and other cities. In May 1998 India tested nuclear weapons. Two weeks later Pakistan followed suit. With
Indian weapons of mass destruction and missile delivery systems, this threat intensified. Both India and Pakistan has also developed and tested missile delivery systems.
In 1999, the
Kargil War between India and Pakistan became the first direct conflict between two declared nuclear powers. Eventhough the war hadn't been openly declared by either side,
Nawaz Sharif, the Prime Minister of Pakistan at that time in his biography has stated that Pakistan's nuclear assets were brought to a high alert level status, but didnt have any operational warheads.
Shaheen-I missile is a
medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) with an optimal range of 750 km. The Shaheen missile is very accurate by the standards of ballistic missiles, and has a
CEP of 50 meters. The Shaheen-I has a single stage solid fuel rocket motor.
Shaheen-II a longer range variant of Shaheen-I, uses a two-stage motor, giving it a range of 2,500 km.
The Shaheen missile system can deliver either a conventional or a non-conventional payload. The solid propellant engine, makes Shaheen missiles faster to deploy than systems such as the
Ghauri. It is also thought that Pakistan is in the process of developing the capability to fire these missiles from submarines and ships, a feature that would greatly enhance the deterrent capability of the
Pakistani Navy.
Advance Re-entry vehicle:Ballistic Missile Defence and CEP
Re-entry vehicle carried by the Shaheen-I missile have a mass of 850kg. This re-entry vehicle mass of 850kg carry Nuclear Warhead weight of the re-entry vehicles itself and a terminal guidance (as confirmed by Dr. Samar Mubarakmand in his interview with Hamid Mir on GEO-TV program CAPITAL TALK SPECIAL dated 05-03-2004)which is most probably radar correlation terminal seeker to achieve extremely accurate CEP in range of 30-50m similar to US PERSHING II.This re-entry vehicle also have four moving delta control fins at the rear (in case of Shaheen-I only) and small solid-propellantside thrust motors motors, which can be used to orientate the re-entry vehicle after boost burn out or before reentry to improve the accuracy by providing stabilization during the terminal phase and this can also be used to fly evasive maneuvers, making it immensely problematic to intercept Shaheen-I by any existing anti-ballistic missile defence systems. As Shaheen-I may change its trajectory several times during re-entry and even during the terminal phase, effectively preventing pre-calculated intercept points of radar systems - which is a method nearly all ABM systems using these days.This re-entry vehicle also have GPS updates to further improve its CEP.
Shaheen-I was first flight tested on April 15, 1999. It was handed over to Pakistan Army in 2003. The missile has a range of 750 km, weighs almost 10 tonns and can carry a payload of 1000 kg. Shaheen-I is also designated as Hatf-IV.
Other missiles currently in the service of Pakistan are
Hatf-I (
BRBM),
Abdali-I (
BRBM),
Ghaznavi (
SRBM),
Ghauri-I (
MRBM),
Ghauri-II (
MRBM),
Ghauri-III (Under Development) (
IRBM),
Shaheen-II (
IRBM),
Babur (
cruise missile) and
Ra'ad (
cruise missile).
Operator
