Pralay missile vs Nasr missile: Is Pakistan’s missile more powerful than India’s lethal weapon? Pakistan expert makes hollow claims

India's Pralay missile has a range between 150 km to 500 km, which can be adjusted as per requirement or mid-flight, giving it the ability to strike at different ranges, and making it a versatile asset for both tactical and strategic uses.

Pakistan, despite its crumbling economy, has been rapidly enhancing its military prowess to outmatch India, including building an impressive arsenal of advanced ballistic missiles, such as the Nasr missile aka the Hatf 9, a ‘Multi-tube Ballistic Missile’, which according to a Pakistani expert is “more powerful” than Indias’s Pralay tactical ballistic missile.

Former Pakistan High Commissioner to India, Abdul Basit, has claimed that the Nasr missile is more powerful than India’s Pralay missile.

Let us find find out if Basit’s claims can be substantiated with hard data, technical specifications, real-world use of these weapons.

Nasr missile vs Pralay missile: Which is more powerful?

Nasr Missile

Developed by the National Development Complex (NDC) of Pakistan, the Nasr, known within the Pakistani military ranks as Hatf-IX Nasr, is a solid fueled tactical ballistic missile, currently in service with the Pakistan Army.

The Nasr missile is capable of carrying a a sub-kiloton tactical nuclear weapon up to a range of 60-70 km, and has been designed for short-range, strategic nuclear deterrence, especially in response to India’s traditional military doctrines like “Cold Start”. Basit claims the Nasr missile has been designed for immediate attack in the battlefield, and can strike a target with pinpoint accuracy.

Pakistan has claimed that the Nasr missile can carry nuclear warheads of appropriate yield with high accuracy, and has been designed to overcome advanced missile defense systems, including Israel’s famed Iron Dome system.

Pralay Missile

Meanwhile, India’s Pralay missile is a canisterised surface-to-surface, short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) with the ability to perform terminal maneuvers to counter anti-ballistic missile (ABM) interceptors. The Pralay missile has a range between 150 km to 500 km, which can be adjusted as per requirement or mid-flight, giving it the ability to strike at different ranges, and making it a versatile asset for both tactical and strategic uses.

Developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Pralay is capable of changing direction as well adjusting its range in mid-flight, making it harder to intercept and more likely to strike its intended target.

While Basit hails the battlefield effectiveness of Nasr due to its short-range, experts argue that the wider range possessed by the Pralay missile provides the ability to mount a more comprehensive strategic response than the Pakistani missile, and the ability to strike targets at a distance of up to 500 kilometers gives India a significant operational advantage.