Pakistan tests Babur 3, first submarine launched nuclear capable cruise missile.

MEMBERS of Pakistan’s strategic community were jubilant earlier this year with the launch of the first ever submarine-based nuclear-capable ballistic missile followed by a long-range missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear bombs. The two events were characterised by some as nothing short of historic.
And yet, a spate of recent terrorist bombings, notably the carnage at the historic Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine in Sehwan Sharif in Sindh, have exposed an uncomfortable truth — that securing Pakistan internally has become a bigger challenge than the country’s external front.
The idea that Pakistan will be able to launch a ‘second nuclear strike’ following one by India in a future war, has cemented Pakistan’s ability to forestall such a devastating future exchange, goes the argument in support of the submarine-based missile. And yet, the recent tests and other similar events don’t have the capacity to forestall Pakistan’s downhill slide, amid a continuing crisis of governance, political disarray and a selective narrow economic uplift surrounded by weak prospects all around. In brief, Pakistan remains as insecure as it was before the missile tests in January.
Even the attainment of a nuclear ‘triad’ — the ability to launch nuclear weapons via air, land and sea — cannot overcome Pakistan’s deepening security challenges. Though the democratic framework is set to remain in place barring unexpected developments, there is plenty more at stake beyond the matter of who gets to rule Pakistan after the next elections in 2018.

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