Does India Have A Counter To The Pakistani Fatah-II Rocket That Was Recently Tested

Pakistan on Wednesday (15 May) successfully tested a long-range guided rocket primarily meant to hit targets deep inside Indian territory.

Pakistani officials say that the rocket has a range of close to 400 kilometres, bringing high value tactical Indian targets within Pakistani striking range.

The Fatah-II rocket is a development of the Fatah-I rocket, that has a maximum range of 140 kilometres. The Fatah-I can be carried by multiple rocket launch system launchers (MLRS), each able to carry eight missiles.

However, only two Fatah-II missiles can be carried by the new launcher due to its larger footprint.

According to Pakistani officials, the rocket is guided by an Inertial Navigation System/Global Positioning System (INS/GPS), which has an accuracy of 10 metres circular error probable (CEP).

Pakistan also has the Shaheen and Ababeel series of missiles, apart from the Babur cruise missile, with similar or longer ranges. But what sets the Fatah-II apart is its range and its cost-effectiveness compared to the Shaheen, Ababeel, or Babur.

Its low cost allows Pakistan to manufacture the guided rocket in large numbers.

Therefore, these rockets could be used in massed rocket fire to overwhelm and suppress India’s air defence systems, like S-400, just like Iran launched hundreds of rockets against Israel last month. Pakistan claims that this missile gives it the ability to target and suppress India’s Russian-origin S-400 surface-to-air missile (SAM) system.

India, in contrast, has no missile or rocket system comparable even to the Fatah-I, let alone the Fatah-II.

The BrahMos missile, with a range of 290 to 800 kilometres, is a supersonic cruise missile that is too costly to be inducted in large numbers. It is typically used to hit high-value tactical and strategic targets.

Guided Pinaka rockets have a range of 75 to 80 kilometres but have not been ordered by the army in large numbers. A longer 120-kilometre range rocket is under development by DRDO, but it will take some time before induction since even the trials of these rockets have not begun.

Nagpur-based Economic Explosives Limited (EEL), which manufactures Pinaka rockets, is developing an even longer 300-kilometre range rocket, called Maheshwarastra, which may be analogous to the Fatah-II.

However, the timeline for its development and induction is unknown.

Prahaar missile, with a range of 150 kilometres, and its longer-range (200 kilometre) variant Pranash, developed by DRDO, have not been inducted by the Indian Army.

The Pralay missile, with a strike range of 500 kilometres, is again, like the BrahMos, too costly for induction in large numbers.

In short, the Indian Army has no direct counter to the Fatah-II missile. However, the Indian Air Force, with its Israeli-designed Rampage and ROCKS missiles, can perform similar missions as the Fatah, but at far longer distances than what the Fatah can achieve, since both of these missiles can be carried by Sukhoi Su-30 MKI fighters deep inside enemy territory and launched.