Watch Pakistan test new long-range precision strike weapon

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan successfully test-fired a new indigenous long-range precision strike weapon with a range of about 249 miles, according to the military’s media branch.

This distance is a considerable leap over the existing Fatah 1 round, which has a range of about 87 miles.

The Fatah 2 is “equipped with state of the art avionics, sophisticated navigation system and unique flight trajectory,” Inter Services Public Relations said in Wednesday’s announcement.” Based on footage of the test released by ISPR, the Fatah 2 appears to be a two-round guided multiple launch rocket system based on the Chinese Taian TAS5450 eight-wheel drive chassis.

Its predecessor, the Fatah 1, is manufactured by Global Industrial Defence Solutions. The conglomerate says the Fatah 1 is intended “to precisely attack and destroy enemy’s group and area targets, such as military bases, massive armored troops, missile launching sites, large airports, harbors and other important facilities.”

The Fatah 1 is an eight-round guided multiple rocket launch system based on the same Taian chassis as the 10-round A-100 multiple launch rocket system in service with Pakistan.

The Fatah 2 test “marks another step in Pakistan’s efforts to field multiple precision strike artillery systems with variable ranges to hold adversary targets at risk,” said Frank O’Donnell, a nonresident fellow with the Stimson Center think tank’s South Asia Program and a senior research adviser at the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network.

The fact Pakistan developed the weapon, he added, demonstrates the country has learned lessons from recent or ongoing conflicts.

“When viewed in the context of Pakistan’s parallel efforts to field a similarly diverse arsenal of combat drones, its implementation of certain lessons — which the military feels the Azerbaijan-Armenia and Russia-Ukraine wars have reinforced — become clear,” O’Donnell told Defense News. “They include the advantages of assigning adversary precision ground bombardment missions to relatively low-cost artillery and combat drone systems, preserving manned fighter aircraft for higher-end strike missions and interception of their counterparts.”

India’s S-400 air defense system is likely a key target of the Fatah 2, he added, as Pakistan could fire the weapon as a decoy to create “greater room for a combat drone to strike the S-400 itself in the midst of the bombardment.”

Usman Ansari is the Pakistan correspondent for Defense News.

伊斯兰堡——据巴基斯坦军方媒体部门称，巴基斯坦成功试射了一种新型国产远程精确打击武器，射程约为249英里。

这一距离比现有的 Fatah 1 号火箭的射程（约 87 英里）有了相当大的提升。

巴基斯坦三军公共关系部周三发布的公告称，“法塔赫2”导弹“配备了最先进的航空电子设备、精密的导航系统和独特的飞行轨迹”。根据三军公共关系部发布的测试视频，“法塔赫2”似乎是一款基于中国泰安TAS5450八轮驱动底盘的双联装制导多管火箭炮系统。

它的前身“法塔赫1”导弹由全球工业防务解决方案公司制造。该公司表示，“法塔赫1”导弹旨在“精确打击并摧毁敌方集群和区域目标，例如军事基地、大规模装甲部队、导弹发射场、大型机场、港口和其他重要设施”。

“法塔赫 1”是一款 8 发制导多管火箭发射系统，其底盘与巴基斯坦现役的 10 发 A-100 多管火箭发射系统相同，均为泰安底盘。

“Fatah 2 的测试标志着巴基斯坦在部署多种射程可变的精确打击火炮系统以威胁敌方目标方面又迈出了一步，”史汀生中心智库南亚项目非常驻研究员、亚太领导力网络高级研究顾问弗兰克·奥唐纳表示。

他补充说，巴基斯坦研制出这种武器的事实表明，该国已经从近期或正在进行的冲突中吸取了教训。

奥唐纳告诉《防务新闻》：“如果结合巴基斯坦也在努力部署类似种类繁多的作战无人机，就能清楚地看到巴基斯坦吸取了一些经验教训——军方认为阿塞拜疆-亚美尼亚战争和俄乌战争都强化了这些经验教训。这些经验教训包括：将对敌方进行精确地面轰炸的任务分配给成本相对较低的火炮和作战无人机系统，从而将有人驾驶战斗机保留用于执行更高端的打击任务和拦截敌方飞机。”

他补充说，印度的 S-400 防空系统很可能是 Fatah 2 的主要目标，因为巴基斯坦可能会发射这种武器作为诱饵，从而“为战斗无人机在轰炸中打击 S-400 本身创造更大的空间”。

乌斯曼·安萨里是《防务新闻》驻巴基斯坦记者。