Weapons & arsenal

 Missiles of Pakistan

Pakistan’s missile arsenal forms an important part of its defense strategy for offsetting the significant conventional military advantages of its main rival, India. Pakistan’s arsenal consists primarily of mobile short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, but it is also making strides in its cruise missile capability. Pakistan’s combined strategic forces allows it to target almost any point in India, and its leadership is now developing more advanced technologies such as multiple independent reentry vehicles (MIRV) to complicate India’s emerging missile defense efforts. Pakistan has received significant technical assistance from China on its nuclear and missile programs, and evidence also strongly indicates close cooperation with both North Korea and Iran on the development and proliferation of these systems.

Missiles of india

India’s missile arsenal serves a number of purposes in New Delhi’s defense strategy. Foremost, it support’s New Delhi’s nuclear deterrent posture against its main rivals Pakistan and China. The latter requirement has pushed India to develop longer-range missiles and to diversify its delivery platforms beyond mobile land-based missiles. To this end, India is developing ship- and sub-launched ballistic missiles and has collaborated with Russia on cruise missile development.

Ostensibly these developments are all to support India’s minimum deterrence doctrine. Yet as India’s missile arsenal develops, its nuclear doctrine may also evolve. This potential development is highlighted, for example, by Indian investment in multiple independently-guided reentry vehicle (MIRV) technology. Still, there is little discussion in India about abandoning its declared no-first-use policy.

MISSILES OF IRAN

Iran possesses the largest and most diverse missile arsenal in the Middle East, with thousands of ballistic and cruise missiles, some capable of striking as far as Israel and southeast Europe. For the past decade, Iran has invested significantly to improve these weapons’ precision and lethality. Such developments have made Iran’s missile forces a potent tool for Iranian power projection and a credible threat to U.S. and partner military forces in the region. Iran has not yet tested or deployed a missile capable of striking the United States, but continues to hone longer-range missile technologies under the auspices of its space-launch program.

Iran is also a major hub for weapons proliferation, supplying partner/proxy groups such as Hezbollah and Syria’s al-Assad regime with a steady supply of missiles and rockets, as well as local production capability. Since 2015, Iran has provided Yemen’s Houthi rebels with increasingly advanced ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as long-range unmanned aerial vehicles. Most recently, Iran has been equipping Shiite militia groups in Iraq with rockets and other small projectiles for use against Iraqi and U.S. military and diplomatic facilities.