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| India-Pakistan |
| Pakistan Tests Medium Range Missile |
| 2002-05-25 |
| Pakistan conducted the first in a series of missile tests Saturday amid growing fears of a war with its neighbor and fellow nuclear power, India. "We don't want war, but we are ready for war," Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said after the test. If they'd worked on the planning for another year or so, they might have come up with a time that was less appropriate, but not by more than an hour or two... The medium-range Ghauri missile, fired at 9:30 a.m. at an undisclosed site, flew 900 miles — far enough to reach deep into India. It can carry both a conventional and nuclear warhead. Now this is the interesting part: While the Paks were testing their missile's accuracy, the Indos would have been testing their technical intelligence collection. How long before the launch were the communciations links set up, and what type? Where was the controlling terminus and the launch positions, both real and notional? What kind of comms links were used? What type of telemetry was used? How long before launch were the radars turned on, and what kind were they? The data should give a complete picture of the entire launch sequence under controlled conditions, complete with relative locations of the pieces. Right this moment, even as we In the event of war, when this sequence starts to repeat — even approximately — the Indos will launch air strikes against every site associated with it. If they have any sense at all, and I think they do, they'll be rotating their pilots through "hot" aircraft sitting on the runway with engines running, just waiting to hit the air at the first warning. If they're really, really good, and the launcher hide areas are all located already, the aircraft will be working in tandem with commando teams on the ground. The missile "showed total accuracy. It hit the target," Musharraf said at a religious gathering to mark the birthday of Islam's prophet Mohammed. Musharraf followed the announcement by saying "Allah-o-Akbar" three times" Happy birthday, Mohammed. God must be pleased mos' to death. Perv is a total loss with no insurance, so it's time to drop him. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |