Pakistan’s Army Rocket Force Command test-fired an extended-range version of its Fatah-2 weapon, the military announced on Oct. 13, 2026, and it described the weapon in different terms from those it used for the Fatah-II in 2024. Inter-Services Public Relations, the armed forces’ media wing, called the new variant a hypersonic ballistic missile able to get past enemy missile defenses.
Those performance claims are ISPR’s own. Neither Dawn’s report of the statement nor the state broadcaster’s gave a range or any flight data, so what can be reported is what the military said and how its language has changed.
According to Dawn’s Oct. 13, 2026, report on the ISPR statement, the test involved “the Fatah-2 extended range (ER) hypersonic ballistic missile.” ISPR said the missile is “equipped with advanced navigation and state-of-the-art avionics,” Dawn reported, and that it can defeat the “enemy’s missile defence systems due to its unique trajectory and manoeuvrability features.”
What ISPR claimed for the ER version
The stated point of the longer reach was depth. The extended range “will further enhance [the] army’s reach and capability of engaging deep targets,” the statement said, as quoted by Dawn.
Radio Pakistan’s Oct. 13 account carried the same description: a “Fatah-2 Extended Range (ER) hypersonic ballistic missile” with advanced navigation and avionics, and trajectory and manoeuvrability features that it said would let the weapon defeat missile defenses. The launch was witnessed by “the Commander Army Rocket Force Command and senior officers from the Pakistan Army,” along with scientists and engineers, the broadcaster said. Dawn identified the commander as Lt. Gen. Nauman Zakaria.
From “guided rocket system” to ballistic missile
The Fatah-2 name was not new. In May 2024, ISPR announced a “training launch” of what it then called the “Fatah-II Guided Rocket System,” according to Geo News’ May 15, 2024, report. That statement described the system as “equipped with state-of-the-art navigation system, unique trajectory and manoeuvrable features,” and said it was “being inducted in Pakistan’s Artillery Divisions for stand-off, precision engagement of deep targets.”
The 2026 statement used much of the same vocabulary, including the trajectory and maneuvering features and the deep targets. What changed was the category: a guided rocket system in an artillery role in 2024, a hypersonic ballistic missile under the Army Rocket Force Command in 2026, according to the two statements as reported.
A second test in a week
Nor was it Pakistan’s only test launch in October. Dawn reported that in the preceding week, “the indigenously developed extended version of the Fatah-IV ground-launched cruise missile” had also been tested successfully, and that ISPR said that test validated sub-systems meant to improve accuracy and survivability.
Neither Dawn’s nor Radio Pakistan’s account of the Fatah-2 ER statement said when, or whether, the extended-range version would enter service.