On 25 November 2025, the Pakistan Navy’s (PN) Director General Public Relations (DGPR) announced the successful test-firing of the SMASH (i.e., Supersonic Missile Anti-Ship), an anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM).
The SMASH has a stated range of 300-350 km and can be deployed from the Zulfiquar-class (F-22P) frigate. Being an ASBM, the missile includes a terminal-stage seeker – either active-radar homing (ARH) or (as with other Pakistani anti-ship munitions, like the Taimur air-launched cruise missile) – imaging infrared (IIR) for engaging moving targets.
The SMASH is one part of the PN’s evolving munitions strategy, which also includes the Harbah NG subsonic anti-ship cruise missile (ASCM), the Zarb subsonic ASCM, and the CM-302 supersonic-cruising missile (SSCM).
The Harbah NG is deployed from two Azmat-class fast attack crafts (FAC) (i.e., PNS Himmat and PNS Haibat), while the CM-302 was inducted through the four Tughril-class (Type 054A/P) frigates. The Zarb, however, is the PN’s primary coastal/land-based ASCM system.
There are several major discussion points from this test. First, and the most obvious, is that the SMASH is a sign of the PN building an anti-access and area-denial (A2/AD) strategy anchored to long-range munitions, submarines, special mission aircraft, unmanned aerial systems (UAS), unmanned surface vessels (USV), and unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV).
Several analyses by Quwa discussed each of these aspects separately, and these can be found in the list of articles below:
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