Pak successfully test fires Hatf-VIII missile

Pakistan has successfully conducted a test flight of the indigenously developed Air Launched Cruise Missile Hatf-VIII (Ra'ad) on Thursday, said an ISPR statement.

The Ra'ad Missile has a range of over 350km, enabling Pakistan to achieve a strategic standoff capability on land and at sea, reports The News.

The state of the art Ra'ad Cruise Missile with stealth capabilities is a low altitude, terrain-hugging missile with high maneuverability, and can deliver nuclear and conventional warheads with pin-point accuracy, stated the paper.

According to the ISPR statement, a major additional feature of the test was the effective employment of the National Command Authority's fully automated Strategic Command and Control Support System (SCCSS).

It has enabled robust command and control capability of all strategic assets with round the clock situational awareness in a digitized network centric environment to decision makers at National Command Centre (NCC).

The system has the added capability of real time remote monitoring of missile flight path.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani congratulated the scientists and engineers on their outstanding achievement.