The Ghauri–I ( ur, غوری-ا; official codename: Hatf–V Ghauri–I) is a land-based surface-to-surface

medium-range ballistic missile A medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) is a type of ballistic missile with medium range, this last classification depending on the standards of certain organizations. Within the U.S. Department of Defense, a medium-range missile is defined by ...

, in current service with the

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ) is the Army, land service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The roots of its modern existence trace back to the British Indian Army that ceased to exist following the partition of India, Partition of British India, wh ...

Strategic Forces Command The Strategic Forces Command (SFC), sometimes called Strategic Nuclear Command, forms part of India's Nuclear Command Authority (NCA). It is responsible for the management and administration of the country's tactical and strategic nuclear weap ...

— a subordinate command of

Strategic Plans Division Strategic Plans Division Force or (SPD Force) ( ur, ) is Pakistan's agency responsible for the protection of its tactical and strategic nuclear weapons stockpile and the strategic assets. It is the security branch of the National Command Authori ...

. Influenced from the design of

Nodong-1 The Hwasong-7 (; spelled Hwaseong-7 in South Korea, lit. Mars Type 7), also known as Nodong-1 (Hangul: ; Hanja: ), is a single-Staging (rocketry), stage, mobile Bipropellant rocket, liquid propellant medium-range ballistic missile developed by Nort ...

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

, its extensive modification and

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

took place in

Kahuta Research Laboratories The Dr. A. Q. Khan Research Laboratories, ( ur, ) or KRL for short, is a federally funded, multi-program national research institute and national laboratory site primarily dedicated to uranium enrichment, supercomputing and fluid mechanics. It ...

(KRL) in 1990s with an objective of developing an

electronic system Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

that uses a single stage

liquid fuel Liquid fuels are combustible or energy-generating molecules that can be harnessed to create mechanical energy, usually producing kinetic energy; they also must take the shape of their container. It is the fumes of liquid fuels that are flammable ...

rocket motor A rocket engine uses stored rocket propellants as the reaction mass for forming a high-speed propulsive jet of fluid, usually high-temperature gas. Rocket engines are reaction engines, producing thrust by ejecting mass rearward, in accordance ...

to carry a payload of 700 kg to a range of 1,500 km. This is enough to reach most, if not all of India. Two variants of the Ghauri were produced under the secretive missile research programme started in 1987 and the development of a third variant was cancelled. The

Ghauri-II The Ghauri-II (Urdu:غوری-اا; official codename: Hatf–VA Ghauri–II), is a Pakistani surface-to-surface medium range guided ballistic missile designed and developed by the Khan Research Laboratories. It is a single-stage liquid fuel m ...

uses increased motor assembly length and improved propellants for an increased range of . The missile is named after Shahabuddin Muhammad Ghauri, while the "Hatf" designation originates from the name of the sword or lance of the Islamic prophet

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...

History

Codename

Upon its development, the missile was named after the 12th century Sultan Shahabuddin Ghauri, by a senior scientist who worked on the program with a keen interest in

medieval history In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

. Sultan Muhammad Ghauri, who successfully campaigned in the northwestern region of India between 1176 and 1182, but was defeated in his first battle in

northern India North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Central ...

by Indian King

Prithviraj Chauhan Prithviraja III (IAST: Pṛthvī-rāja; reign. – 1192 CE), popularly known as Prithviraj Chauhan or Rai Pithora, was a king from the Chauhan (Chahamana) dynasty who ruled the territory of Sapadalaksha, with his capital at Ajmer in present- ...

; but Ghauri returned in June 1192 when he defeated Prithviraj. He captured Delhi in 1199, but established his kingdom formally in 1206. However, the JS HQ has officially codenamed the missile "Hatf–5 (Ghauri–I); the Hatf codename originates from the name of the

sword A sword is an edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter blade with a pointed ti ...

or lance of

Design and development

According to the

American intelligence American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

estimates in 1999, the ''Ghauri–I'' is influenced and its design development is based on the

Rodong-1 The Hwasong-7 (; spelled Hwaseong-7 in South Korea, lit. Mars Type 7), also known as Nodong-1 (Hangul: ; Hanja: ), is a single-Staging (rocketry), stage, mobile Bipropellant rocket, liquid propellant medium-range ballistic missile developed by Nort ...

missile of

.Report to Congress, January – June 1999
''Unclassified Report to Congress on the Acquisition of Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced Conventional Munitions.''

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

. According to the American

Federation of Atomic Scientists The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) is an American nonprofit global policy think tank with the stated intent of using science and scientific analysis to attempt to make the world more secure. FAS was founded in 1946 by scientists who wo ...

, the ''Ghauri–I'' is believed to inherit a warhead spin-up mechanism from the Rodong 1 and it is stated that this feature could improve accuracy up to 190m CEP— although this is still debatable. The mechanism involves using steering vanes to spin the missile after 100 seconds of flight time. After 110 seconds, the rocket motor stops and the warhead separates from the rocket motor. The warhead then enters a more stable re-entry trajectory due to its spinning motion. Warhead accuracy would be further enhanced if the Ghauri's inertial navigation system is capable of being updated by GPS satellite signals. By Pakistan's own unofficial admission, the

technology transfer Technology transfer (TT), also called transfer of technology (TOT), is the process of transferring (disseminating) technology from the person or organization that owns or holds it to another person or organization, in an attempt to transform invent ...

took place in 1990s in return of the instructions on enrichment methods for

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

Not much has been publicized as controversy surrounds the claim that North Korean nuclear efforts were well advanced before the instructions on enrichment methods

were provided. According to the Pakistani military reports, the original design of the missile was flawed and the missile's frontal

conic In mathematics, a conic section, quadratic curve or conic is a curve obtained as the intersection of the surface of a cone with a plane. The three types of conic section are the hyperbola, the parabola, and the ellipse; the circle is a special ...

nose A nose is a protuberance in vertebrates that houses the nostrils, or nares, which receive and expel air for respiration alongside the mouth. Behind the nose are the olfactory mucosa and the sinuses. Behind the nasal cavity, air next passes th ...

section material burned up due to generated

shock wave In physics, a shock wave (also spelled shockwave), or shock, is a type of propagating disturbance that moves faster than the local speed of sound in the medium. Like an ordinary wave, a shock wave carries energy and can propagate through a med ...

s and

hypersonic effect The hypersonic effect is a phenomenon reported in a controversial scientific study by Tsutomu Oohashi et al.,T. Oohashi, E. Nishina, M. Honda, Y. Yonekura, Y. Fuwamoto, N. Kawai, T. Maekawa, S. Nakamura, H. Fukuyama, and H. ShibasakiInaudible hi ...

re-entry Atmospheric entry is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. There are two main types of atmospheric entry: ''uncontrolled entry'', such as the entr ...

during its first test flight in 1998. High

stress Stress may refer to: Science and medicine * Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition * Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...

and high temperature shift caused the material to melt during the

while its vintage electronic systems, engine system, and

propellant A propellant (or propellent) is a mass that is expelled or expanded in such a way as to create a thrust or other motive force in accordance with Newton's third law of motion, and "propel" a vehicle, projectile, or fluid payload. In vehicles, the e ...

had to be replaced. Eventually, the

section was redesigned by rounding the cone which allowed the missile to travel from subsonic flow to supersonic flow. The KRL, with assistance from the

NESCOM The National Engineering & Scientific Commission (NESCOM) ( ur, ) is a Pakistani missile manufacturer and civilian research organization of Pakistan, under the administrative control of the Strategic Plans Division of Pakistan's National Command ...

DESTO Desto Records was an American record label. It was founded in 1951 by Horace Grenell who had a mail order business of selling children's records and was looking to expand genres. The first issue was a three disc edition of '' The Beggars Opera''. I ...

, and NDC, engaged in heavy reengineering of much of the missile electronic system. The

systems are incapable of storing fuel for any long period of time; the Ghauri–I requires fueling for several hours before launch, making it vulnerable to a first strike. It is believed that this is why Pakistan has not pursued

systems other than the ''Ghauri–I'' and

. It also makes it less likely that the ''Ghaur-I'' would be armed with a nuclear warhead, although it has been stated that it is capable of being loaded with "all types" of warheads. Contrast to the Shaheen program that went under the joint conjecture of Pakistan's

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an a ...

and the

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

, the Ghauri program was designed for the

which was setting to accuracy goal for a highly accurate missile designed to strike high-value targets. The

solid-fueled Solid fuel refers to various forms of solid material that can be burnt to release energy, providing heat and light through the process of combustion. Solid fuels can be contrasted with liquid fuels and gaseous fuels. Common examples of solid fuel ...

Shaheen-I The Shaheen-I ( ur, شاہين-ا; official codename: Hatf–IV Shaheen), is a Pakistani land-based supersonic and short-to-medium range surface-to-surface guided ballistic missile jointly designed and developed by the joint venture of NESCOM an ...

A is believed to be an alternative missile system for the ''Ghauri–I''. However, it has been stated that the ''Ghauri–I'' has the advantage of lower cost than

systems. This makes it particularly useful in testing launch and control systems. It has been speculated that the Ghauri–I design may serve as a starting point for a future Pakistani

space launch vehicle A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pads, supported by a launch control center and syste ...

Operational history and tests

The ''Ghauri–I'' was first test fired at 7:25 hrs on 6 April 1998 from the Tilla Test Range near Malute,

Jhelum Cantt Jhelum Cantt. (Urdu/Punjabi language, Punjabi: ) or Jhelum Cantonment is cantonment area in Jhelum City, Jhelum adjacent to the city area.

which is about 76 mi (122.31 km) south of the

Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital T ...

. It was fired from a

transporter erector launcher A transporter erector launcher (TEL) is a missile vehicle with an integrated tractor unit that can carry, elevate to firing position and launch one or more missiles. History Such vehicles exist for both surface-to-air missiles and surface-to-su ...

and traveled in a flight lasting 9 minutes and 58 seconds. It climbed to a height of 350 km before turning in the direction of its planned impact area in the desert of Balochistan where it hit the designated target at 7:33 hrs. At the time, Pakistani military's information source, the ISPR stated that the missile hit its designated target in the desert of

Balochistan Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. ...

. Official

Pakistani military The Pakistan Armed Forces (; ) are the military forces of Pakistan. It is the world's sixth-largest military measured by active military personnel and consist of three formally uniformed services—the Army, Navy, and the Air Force, which are ...

reports revealed that the first test was not successful because the missile's conic

melted due to tremendous amount of heat during the re-entry phase of its flight. After redesigning

by rounding it to avoid the

but traveling from subsonic to supersonic flow, ''Ghauri–I'' was successfully test fired for second time as then-Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali witnessed the test. On 21 December 2010, the ''Ghauri–I'' was again successfully test fired for a third time. On 12 November 2012, the ''Ghauri–I'' was successfully test fired for a fourth occasion by the Strategic Missile Group of the Army Strategic Force Command. The test-flight was monitored by the new Strategic Command and Control Support System (SCCSS) and is believed to have been geared towards testing the SCCSS rather than the missile itself. On 15 April 2015, ''Ghauri-I'' was again test fired from Tilla Test Range; it was fired from the

. File:'Pakistan Military Museum (63).jpg, File:Redstone.jpg, File:Rodong-1.png,

References

External links