Yousaf Khan
The landmark test, conducted by the Pakistan Navy from a surface combatant, showcased unprecedented levels of precision, lethality, and hypersonic maneuverability. The missile successfully struck a high-speed simulated warship target, validating Pakistan’s entry into a highly exclusive class of naval powers capable of delivering hypersonic ballistic strikes from the sea.
According to an official naval statement, the flight test was witnessed by the Chief of Naval Staff, along with senior scientists and engineers. The President, Prime Minister, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, and service chiefs congratulated the participating teams, describing the test as clear evidence of Pakistan’s growing technological maturity and the Navy’s resolve to safeguard national maritime interests.
The missile was launched from PNS Tippu Sultan (F-280), a Type 054A/P frigate and the Pakistan Navy’s most advanced surface combatant. The test validated the missile’s complete operational profile, including cold-launch ejection from a universal vertical launch system (UVLS), mid-course guidance updates, autonomous terminal maneuvering, and a steep hypersonic re-entry exceeding Mach 8 before achieving a direct kinetic hit.
Senior naval officials characterized the event as a “paradigm shift” in Pakistan’s maritime strike doctrine. With this test, Pakistan joins a small global group of nations possessing ship-launched ballistic missile capability—previously dominated by the United States and China, and under limited interpretations, Iran and North Korea.
The successful demonstration has immediate strategic implications. By drastically compressing adversary reaction times and undermining conventional carrier strike group defense concepts, SMASH significantly disrupts existing naval power assumptions in South Asia.
More broadly, the test underscores Pakistan’s transition into a technologically capable naval force able to field next-generation hypersonic systems once reserved for major powers. It also signals a doctrinal shift from platform-centric procurement to effects-centric lethality, enabling even a single frigate to exert disproportionate strategic pressure on high-value enemy surface formations.
A Game-Changer for Anti-Access and Area Denial (A2/AD)
The operational validation of SMASH elevates Pakistan’s maritime deterrence posture into a new era of long-range precision strike. Defense analysts note that the missile effectively creates a powerful A2/AD envelope extending hundreds of kilometres beyond Pakistan’s coastline, complicating adversary naval operations throughout the Arabian Sea.
Historically, Pakistan relied on anti-ship cruise missiles such as Babur-3, Harbah, and Zarb, along with air-launched stand-off weapons, to counter India’s numerical naval advantage. The introduction of a hypersonic ASBM launched from a surface combatant fundamentally alters this engagement geometry.
Unlike cruise missiles that follow predictable sea-skimming trajectories, an ASBM approaches its target from exo-atmospheric altitudes on a quasi-ballistic path, executing terminal maneuvers that sharply reduce interception probabilities—even against advanced systems such as Barak-8, SM-6, or prospective AD-1/AD-2 interceptors.
With an estimated strike range of 700–850 km, SMASH allows Pakistan to threaten Indian carrier strike groups, amphibious task forces, and critical logistics vessels long before they can project power near Pakistan’s littoral waters.
At a time when India is expanding its naval footprint through carrier operations, Andaman Sea basing, and partnerships with the United States and France, Pakistan’s new capability introduces a cost-effective yet strategically disruptive asymmetric deterrent. Ship-launched ASBMs allow Pakistan to achieve maritime denial without matching Indian expansion ship-for-ship or carrier-for-carrier.
As one strategist noted, Pakistan does not need a fleet of aircraft carriers if a single frigate can now hold an entire carrier strike group at risk from standoff ranges.
Inside SMASH: Hypersonic Precision from the Vertical Launch Cell
While much of the missile’s data remains classified, informed technical assessments suggest SMASH is a sophisticated two-stage ballistic missile designed for seamless integration with the Type 054A/P’s existing UVLS architecture.
The missile is estimated to be 11.5–12 metres long with a diameter of 0.88 metres, allowing compatibility with launch cells originally designed for HQ-16 surface-to-air missiles. This commonality simplifies logistics, reduces integration complexity, and enables flexible multi-role loadouts.
Launch weight is assessed at 16–18 tonnes, placing SMASH among the heaviest vertically launched ballistic missiles deployed from a surface combatant outside China. Terminal speeds exceeding Mach 8 confirm its classification as a hypersonic maneuvering ballistic weapon, with indications of a skip-glide flight profile commonly associated with hypersonic glide vehicles.
The guidance system likely combines inertial navigation with satellite-aided mid-course updates and a dual-mode terminal seeker blending active radar and electro-optical sensors, potentially including a home-on-jam capability. A 500–700 kg warhead expands the missile’s role beyond anti-ship missions to hardened land-attack and counter-logistics operations.
The cold-launch mechanism enhances platform survivability by reducing thermal and acoustic signatures, allowing 360-degree engagement without launcher rotation—an important force multiplier for a navy operating under budgetary constraints.
Strategic Shockwaves Across the Indian Ocean
The SMASH test comes amid intensifying maritime competition in the Indian Ocean, where India has invested heavily in carriers, nuclear submarines, and hypersonic weapon development. Assets such as INS Vikrant and future carrier programs were widely viewed as cementing India’s long-term naval dominance.
Pakistan’s sudden emergence as a ship-launched ASBM power injects significant uncertainty into Indian maritime planning. Carrier strike groups valued at USD 12–18 billion are now vulnerable well beyond their organic defense and surveillance envelopes, forcing reconsideration of operating patterns, routing, and defensive investments.
While India’s Ministry of Defense has issued no formal response, reports suggest internal assessments are underway regarding carrier survivability within Pakistan’s expanded threat envelope. The United States Indo-Pacific Command has also acknowledged monitoring the situation, signaling concern over escalation in an increasingly contested maritime theatre.
What Comes Next
The maiden launch is believed to be the first step in a broader induction roadmap. A follow-on test involving a multi-missile salvo from multiple platforms is expected before mid-2026, aimed at validating saturation-attack concepts designed to overwhelm layered naval defenses.
Pakistan is also reportedly developing an extended-range SMASH-ER variant with a potential reach of 1,500–1,800 km, dramatically expanding coverage across the Arabian Sea and western Indian Ocean. Even more transformative is ongoing work to integrate SMASH onto Hangor-II AIP submarines, potentially making Pakistan the first South Asian navy to field a submarine-launched anti-ship ballistic missile.
A New Era of Maritime Deterrence
The successful SMASH test represents far more than a technological milestone—it signals the emergence of a new maritime deterrent architecture in South Asia. By demonstrating ship-launched hypersonic ballistic strike capability, Pakistan has disrupted long-standing assumptions about naval warfare, shifting the focus from platform size to precision, speed, and survivability.
Pakistan’s denial envelope now extends deep into open ocean spaces, transforming the Arabian Sea into a high-risk environment for coercive naval operations. The message is clear: even the most heavily defended naval assets are no longer beyond reach.
In the evolving contest for influence across the Indian Ocean, SMASH marks Pakistan Navy’s entry into a new era of precision lethality and strategic relevance—one where the rules of maritime engagement have decisively changed.
The author is a defence analyst
