Behind the U.S.-Pakistan Missile Spat: The Indian Threat

The spat between Washington and Islamabad over allegations that Pakistan illegally modified U.S.-supplied missiles to improve its ability to target India reveals a deeper schism in the relationship: Pakistan's military establishment remains unmoved by Washington's best efforts to persuade it that the Taliban, rather than India, is the primary threat facing Pakistan — and that's bad news for the U.S. effort in neighboring Afghanistan.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry on Aug. 31 "categorically rejected" charges made by unnamed Obama Administration and Congressional officials quoted in the New York Times the day before that new missiles enabling Pakistan's navy to strike targets on shore were modified from stock supplied by the U.S. during the 1980s. Officials in Islamabad insist that Pakistan produced the new missiles itself.

Some Pakistani experts believe the official claims. "It's nothing extraordinary for Pakistan," says Talat Masood, a retired lieutenant general who headed Pakistan's largest ordnance factory. "Pakistan has a very comprehensive missile program and is fully capable of producing a wide range of missiles: surface-to-surface, ballistic, anti-air, anti-tanks, etc."

"This is what happens in countries that are dependent on foreign technology," says Ayesha Siddiqa, a military expert and author of Pakistan's Arms Procurement and Military Buildup, 1979-99. Much of Pakistan's military modernization has come about from U.S. arms sales in the 1950s and '80s. "In Pakistan, we have not really gone beyond license production and reverse engineering." Siddiqa adds that this is not the first time that Pakistan has been accused of reverse engineering or modification. A U.S. Tomahawk cruise missile that had strayed into Pakistani territory during strikes on al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan in August 1998 and was recovered intact by Pakistan is widely believed to have provided the basis for its Babur cruise missile. Pakistan spends "a very small amount of defense production on research and development," says Siddiqa. The Ghauri missile — Pakistan's much-vaunted medium-range ballistic missile, capable of traveling up to 1,500 km and carrying a payload of 700 kg — is simply a renamed Nodong-1 missile imported from North Korea. Drawing on the technology of the North Korean imports, Pakistan is continuing to develop its own longer-range variants — all pointed at India.