ISLAMABAD: The recent Indo-Pak tensions, Pakistan has formally established the Army Rocket Force Command (ARFC), a move seen by many as the most important evolution in the country’s conventional military doctrine in decades.
In this regard, some critics view the development as a reaction to the four-day military conflict with India earlier this year, background discussions with defense officials suggest the ARFC is not a hasty measure but the result of years of strategic planning.
The initiative indicates Pakistan’s effort to address the long-standing challenge of balancing India’s conventional military superiority without an overreliance on nuclear weapons.
Furthermore, the ARFC consolidates long-range rocket and missile capabilities into a single command structure. In earlier military capacities, artillery divisions operating long-range vectors functioned independently.
In this sense, the centerpiece of this transformation is the Fateh-series rockets, known for their great range and increased precision.
Moreover, the government officials say these systems are not merely about firepower but about providing flexibility, control, and credible deterrence below the nuclear threshold. In any future confrontation, such capabilities could enable Pakistan to impose costs through limited but intense conventional strikes, reducing the risk of escalation into a full-scale war.
In addition, the strategic experts focus on the fact that deterrence is not confined to nuclear weapons alone.
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The conventional capabilities also shape the conflict spectrum. This initiative strengthens what military planners describe as “deterrence by punishment” the capacity to impose swift and decisive costs on an adversary, thereby discouraging any miscalculation.
