By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has test-fired its first domestically developed air-to-air missile, the military said on Tuesday, the latest in a run of weapons trials in little over a month.
The Fa’az is fitted with a “state-of-the-art terminal guidance system” and can engage enemy aircraft at longer ranges, according to a statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing.
The ISPR said the weapon would “significantly enhance the operational flexibility” of the Pakistan Air Force and strengthen the country’s overall defence posture. It described the flight test as proof of the “technical maturity, innovation and self-reliance” of Pakistan’s defence industry.
Senior officers of the armed forces, together with scientists and engineers who worked on the system, watched the launch. President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Field Marshal Asim Munir and the services chiefs congratulated the scientists and engineers. Field Marshal Munir is both chief of army staff and chief of defence forces.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi also congratulated the nation, calling the test an important development for the defence sector. “Our scientists and engineers have once again achieved a remarkable feat,” he said, adding that the country was proud of them.
The ISPR did not give the missile’s range, speed, the aircraft that can carry it, or the date and location of the test. Dawn captioned footage released by the military as showing the missile being fired from a JF-17 fighter jet.
The test follows two other missile launches announced by the army in October.
On 6 October, the army said it had test-fired an extended-range version of the Fatah-4 ground-launched cruise missile, which it said was fitted with advanced avionics and modern navigation systems. The ISPR said the weapon could engage targets at extended ranges with high precision and lethality, and that the trial validated additional technical parameters of various subsystems designed to improve accuracy and survivability. The military did not disclose the range achieved.
The original Fatah-4 was test-fired in September 2025 at a range of 750 kilometres. The military has said its terrain-hugging flight profile is designed to evade missile defences.
A week later, on 13 October, the army tested the extended-range version of its Fatah-2, which it describes as a hypersonic ballistic missile. The ISPR said the weapon could strike targets with high precision and defeat enemy missile defences because of its “unique trajectory and manoeuvrability”. It said the longer range would extend the army’s ability to engage deep targets.
Pakistan has not disclosed the Fatah-2 ER’s range. Nor has it published flight data to support the claim that it can defeat missile defences. Quwa, a defence analysis website, counted that launch as the Army Rocket Force Command’s fourth publicly announced missile test of 2026.
The tests come as relations between Pakistan and India, which fought a four-day military confrontation in May last year, remain strained.
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