Update: Pakistan establishes rocket force, unveils new missile

The new Fatah-IV missile was unveiled on 12 August. (Janes)

Pakistan has established a new Army Rocket Force Command (ARFC) one day after images of a new land-attack surface-to-surface cruise missile emerged on social media.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced the formation of the new ARFC on 13 August in a speech to mark the countryʼs 78th Independence Day celebrations. ARFC is focused on enhancing Pakistanʼs conventional warfare capability.

Sharif said ARFC will be equipped with “state-of-the-art technology” and would operate missiles equipped with conventional payloads. He did not elaborate on the capabilities of ARFC or on what missiles it would be equipped with.

News agencies in Pakistan also reported on 12 August that a new missile – known as Fatah-IV – was unveiled at a military event commemorating independence day. Images of the missile were also widely circulated on social media.

The Pakistan government has not officially confirmed the existence of Fatah-IV. However, images of the missile showed an information board next to the missile that stated it has a range of 750 km, a maximum altitude of 50 m, a length of 7.5 m, and a weight of 1,530 kg.

According to the information board, the missile has a maximum speed of Mach 0.7 and is equipped with a 330 kg blast fragmentation conventional warhead. The information board also stated that the missile is “terrain-hugging”, a feature that is intended to avoid radar detection.

The Fatah-IV images show that the subsonic missile is a two-stage, solid-fuel-propelled weapon featuring fin stabilisation. Janes assesses that the missile likely features GPS and a terrain contour matching guidance system. The missile is also possibly equipped with an altimeter to enable its claimed terrain-hugging capability.