Strategic Weapons: April 23, 2000

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Pakistan has unveiled its Shaheen-II theater ballistic missile. Details are unknown; the rocket shown to the press had two solid-fuel stages and was carried by a road-mobile launcher eerily similar to the one used by the Russians for the old SS-20. Pakistan claims that Shaheen-II can carry a 1,000kg warhead to a range of 2,500km, but in southern Asia, stated missile ranges are often overstated for political reasons.--Stephen V Cole