Stealth cruise missile tested successfully

From combined dispatches

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan yesterday successfully tested a new air-launched cruise missile with stealth design, the military said.

The missile, named Ra’ad, or Hatf-8, has a range of 220 miles and can carry all types of warheads, the military said.

“The missile has a low detection probability due to stealth design and materials,” it said.

The military said the missile would give its aircraft “a strategic standoff capability on land and at sea.”

The test took place a month after Pakistan tested the nuclear-capable Babur Hatf VII cruise missile, which has a range of 435 miles. The Babur was first tested in 2005.

The Ra’ad — which means thunder in Arabic — has an accuracy comparable to the Babur missile, the military said.

President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz congratulated the scientists and engineers involved in the development of the new missile.

“Pakistan’s defense will continue to be strengthened as an imperative of national security,” the military quoted the two leaders as saying.

Nuclear-armed rivals Pakistan and India routinely carry out missile tests despite a peace process begun in early 2004. The neighbors carried out nuclear weapons tests in 1998.

The latest test comes against a backdrop of mounting political opposition to Gen. Musharraf — fueling international anxiety about the security of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.

“Every time you fire a missile there is a political connotation to it,” defense analyst and retired army general Talat Masood told Agence France-Presse.

Pakistan did not say if it had informed New Delhi in advance about yesterday’s test. The two countries have an agreement to notify each other about tests of ballistic missiles but not cruise missiles.

Pakistan also has been at the center of global concern about a nuclear black market run by its disgraced chief atomic scientist and national hero Abdul Qadeer Khan.

Mr. Khan confessed in 2004 to providing nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya. He was pardoned by Gen. Musharraf but remains under effective house arrest at his Islamabad villa.