What You Need to Know: During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, the Indian Navy’s Operation Trident on Karachi highlighted the effectiveness of anti-ship warfare. Decades later, Pakistan’s Navy has enhanced its arsenal with the SMASH SLBM (P282), an advanced ship-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) boasting a range of 350 km and anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) capabilities.
-The missile, tested from a Zulfiquar-class frigate, potentially includes Chinese CM-401 anti-ship technology, adding supersonic maneuverability and precision targeting for both sea and land threats.
-China’s strategic alliance with Pakistan continues to bolster Islamabad’s defense prowess, underscoring regional tensions and the increasing sophistication of maritime strike capabilities.
Pakistan’s New Anti-Ship Missile: SMASH SLBM Adds Supersonic Strike Power
During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, the Indian Navy carried out Operation Trident, an attack on the Pakistani port city of Karachi. Suffering no losses, while sinking a destroyer and badly damaging another, the engagement has been described as the Indian Navy’s finest hour.
It is one that more than four decades later the Pakistani military hasn’t forgotten. More importantly, the engagement in the Arabian Sea also saw the first use of anti-ship missiles in the region, but if tempers flare it won’t be the last.
While Pakistan’s military already operates a variety of advanced anti-ship missiles, it now appears it has a new weapon in its arsenal. And it may have received help from China in developing it.
The SMASH SLBM
This week, the Pakistan Navy announced that it had successfully conducted a test flight of its “indigenously developed Ship-Launched Ballistic Missile.” The SMASH SLBM – also known as the P282 – reportedly has a range of 350 km (217 miles), and it can be used against land and sea targets “with high precision.” The Pakistan sea service further suggested the missile is “equipped with a state-of-the-art navigation system and maneuverability features,” and thus has anti-access area-denial (A2/AD) capabilities.
During the recent tests, it was fired from one of the Pakistan Navy’s four Zulfiquar-class (F-22P) multi-mission frigates. The vessels are based on China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN’s) Type 053 air-defense frigates, which are armed with eight diagonally mounted anti-ship missile launchers that were originally designed to fire the Chinese C-802 anti-ship missiles.
Details Are Sparse
Other details about the missile remain sparse, but according to open-source military intelligence analyst firm Janes, which carefully viewed the Pakistan Navy video, the SMASH has “a diameter of between 85 cm and 90 cm and an overall length of about 9 m,” while “the missile’s exhaust plume strongly suggests that it is controlled by jet vanes during its boost phase, with steering assistance provided by four clipped delta flight control surfaces at its rear.”
An external ridge on the ordnance’s fuselage is believed to house communication equipment including an antenna array and electronics bus, which would provide a wireless link to “the control module and the missile’s propulsion and steering systems.”
There is also speculation that Islamabad developed the missile with assistance from Beijing, and it may employ technology from the Chinese CM-401 anti-ship ballistic missile. That weapon, which features an advanced trajectory, was developed specifically to target warships at sea, fleets, and harbor facilities. The CM-401 can reach supersonic speed with a high level of maneuverability, which enables it to follow a near-space, semi-ballistic trajectory to the target.
China maintains a close relationship with Pakistan, which allowed Islamabad to greatly enhance its military capabilities – including weapon systems that are considered beyond its domestic capabilities.
Author Experience and Expertise: Peter Suciu
Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: [email protected].
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