Pakistan test fires anti-ship missiles successfully

The Pakistan Navy on April 25, 2020, had successfully test fired anti-ship missiles in the North Arabian sea.

Highlights

• The missiles were fired at sea level from by aircraft and warships from the surface ships. 
• The Pakistan Navy sends strong signals of readiness to encounter enemies upon the success of the testing.
• The testing comes during the period where India-Pakistan relations are strained as the Indian Government abrogated Article 370. 
• Article 370 had given special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir earlier.

Anti-Ship Missiles

• The Anti-Ship Missiles are those missiles that are used against large boats and ships. 
• The first anti-ship missiles were developed by Germany during the reign of Hitler.

Indian Anti-ship missiles

• The anti-ship missiles possessed by India includes BrahMos, Nirbhay, Dhanush, BrahMos II and BrahMos NG. 
• BrahMos missiles were jointly developed by India and Russia.
• The Nirbhay anti-ship missile is under development by the Aeronautical Development Establishment operating under DRDO (Defence Research Development Organization). 
• The missile is under flight trails. The first stage of the missile is fired with solid fuel and the second stage with liquid fuel. 
• Till April 2019, six successful trials of the missile have been completed.
• Dhanush missile was produced by the DRDO and is a variant of surface to surface Prithvi III missile.