Pakistan tests new cruise missile

December 11th, 2007 Sana · No Comments

Pakistan has successfully test-fired a new cruise missile capable of carrying nuclear weapons, its military said.

The locally developed missile, named Hatf-VII (or Babur), has a range of 700km (430 miles), a military spokesman told reporters.

Pakistan and its neighbour India - both nuclear powers - routinely carry out missile tests.

Tension between the two countries has decreased in recent months amid a series of bilateral overtures.

Tuesday morning’s launch of the Hatf VII missile was “part of a continuous process of validating the design parameters set for this weapon system”, an army statement quoted by the Associated Press news agency said.

Pakistan earlier tested the same missile in March.

In August, Pakistan launched a missile, named Hatf-VIII (or Raad, “thunder” in Arabic), with a range of 350km (220 miles), and capable of carrying all types of warheads.

In February, it test-fired a nuclear-capable, surface-to-surface Hatf VI missile, with a much longer range of 2,000 km (1,250 miles).