Is Pakistan building ICBMs? Non-proliferation experts dispute US warning

A US intelligence assessment warning of a potential threat from Pakistan’s prospective intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) has been challenged by nuclear non-proliferation experts, who say Islamabad’s defence programme is focused on regional deterrence rather than targeting the American “homeland”.Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told the US Senate on Wednesday that Pakistan – along with China, Iran, North Korea and Russia – has been “researching and developing an array of novel, advanced or traditional missile delivery systems with nuclear and conventional payloads that can strike the homeland”.Gabbard said despite the rise of one-way attack drones, these five countries “will continue to prioritise advanced missiles that can threaten the US”.However, their militaries “almost certainly will plan to pair their high-end missiles with cheaper, expendable systems to stress US missile defences”, she said.On Thursday, Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi “categorically rejected” the US claims, saying the country’s strategic capabilities were “exclusively defensive in nature, aimed at safeguarding national sovereignty and maintaining peace and stability in South Asia”.He said Islamabad’s missile programme “remains well below intercontinental range … [and] is firmly rooted in the doctrine of credible minimum deterrence vis-a-vis India”.