By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s army test-fired an extended-range version of its Fatah-2 hypersonic ballistic missile on Tuesday, the military said, the second launch of a longer-range weapon in a week and the latest step in the expansion of its conventional strike arsenal.
The Fatah-2 ER carries advanced navigation and avionics and can hit targets with high precision, Inter-Services Public Relations, the army’s media wing, said in a statement. The missile’s trajectory and maneuverability allow it to defeat an adversary’s missile defenses, it said, and its added range will extend the army’s reach against deep targets.
The statement did not give the missile’s range, speed or launch location.
The launch was watched by Lieutenant General Nauman Zakaria, who heads the Army Rocket Force Command, along with senior army officers, scientists and engineers. Zakaria praised the technical skill of the teams involved, ISPR said. President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir, who is both army chief and chief of defence forces, congratulated the scientists and engineers, along with the service chiefs.
Tuesday’s launch follows a test last week of an extended-range version of the Fatah-4 ground-launched cruise missile. ISPR said that weapon also carries advanced avionics and navigational aids and can engage targets at extended range with high precision and lethality. The test also validated additional technical parameters of sub-systems meant to improve accuracy and survivability, it said.
The Fatah series has been a recurring feature of the army’s testing schedule this year. The Army Rocket Force Command conducted a training launch of the Fateh-II system on April 28, with ISPR citing troop training and validation of key technical parameters. The command followed with a training launch of the Fatah-IV cruise missile on May 14. In September 2025, the army carried out a training launch of the Fatah-4 at a range of 750 kilometers. ISPR has said the weapon is designed to evade missile defenses by flying close to the terrain.
The base Fatah-2 has been described differently by its manufacturer. Global Industrial and Defence Solutions lists it as a quasi-ballistic surface-to-surface missile with a domestic range of 400 kilometers, a supersonic terminal speed above Mach 2 and the ability to maneuver throughout its flight. Tuesday’s statement describes the extended-range version as hypersonic, a term that generally refers to speeds above Mach 5.
The rocket force itself is a recent creation. The Army Rocket Force Command consolidates conventional and rocket units from several formations and specialist detachments into a single operational command. It was set up in the wake of the May 2025 military conflict with India, the worst between the nuclear-armed neighbours in decades.
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