Pakistan tests cruise missile, India its Agni-V missile

ISLAMABAD, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- An air-launched cruise missile indigenously developed by Pakistan successfully conducted a flight test on Monday.

Inter Services Public Relations, a media organization of Pakistan's military, said the Ra'ad missile has a range of about 207 miles and incorporates stealth capabilities.

Ra'ad flies at a low altitude, is highly maneuverable and can carry nuclear warhead or a conventional one. Additional details on missile specifications, however, were not disclosed.

The successful test immediately garnered praise from Pakistan's Director General of Strategic Plans Division Lt. Gen. Zubair Mahmood Hayat.

According to ISPR, the general called the missile test "another milestone of historic significance," it said, and a "major step towards strengthening Pakistan's full spectrum credible minimum deterrence capability."

In other regional news, Pakistan's arch-rival, India, reports it successfully test-launched a nuclear capable Agni-V intercontinental ballistic missile from a mobile launcher.

The test took place on Saturday.

"This is a momentous occasion," Avinash Chander, outgoing chief of India's Defense Research & Development Organization was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times . "It is India's first ever intercontinental ballistic missile launch from a canister and a giant leap in the country's deterrent capability."

The missile has a range of about 3,100 miles.