DHAKA: Pakistan is developing sea-based missiles and expanding its interest in tactical nuclear warheads to give it a ‘second-strike’ capability if a catastrophic nuclear attack destroyed all its land-based weapons.

The next step of Pakistan’s strategy includes an effort to develop nuclear warheads suitable for deployment from the Indian Ocean, either from warships or from one of the country’s five diesel-powered navy submarines.

In a sign of that ambition, Pakistan in 2012 created the Naval Strategic Force command, which is similar to the air force and army commands that oversee nuclear weapons, reports the Times of India on Monday.

“We are on our way, and my own hunch is within a year or so, we should be developing our second-strike capability,” the paper quoted Shireen M Mazari, a nuclear expert and the former director of the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad, a Pakistani government-funded thinktank.

Instead of working to enhance the range of its missiles, Pakistan is developing shorter-range cruise missiles that fly lower to the ground and can evade ballistic missile defences, analysts said.

Pakistan has repeatedly tested its indigenously produced, nuclear-capable, Babur cruise missile, which has a range of 640km and can strike targets at land and sea, military officials said.

BDST: 2142 HRS, SEP 22, 2014