Army Strategic Forces Command (Pakistan)

Army Strategic Forces Command (Pakistan)
Active	March 2000 - Present
Country	Pakistan
Branch	Pakistan Army
Type	Nuclear warfare Space warfare Electronic warfare
Role	Functional Combatant Command Deployment of Land Based Strategic Assets
Part of	Unified part of the Air Force Missile Command Naval Strategic Command
HQ/Command Control Headquarter	Rawalpindi, Punjab Province
Nickname(s)	Army Strategic Forces Command (Army SF Command)
Colors Identification	Red and White
Decorations	Military Decorations of Pakistan Military
Commanders
Core-Commander	LGen Syed Tariq Nadeem Gilani
Notable commanders	LGen Ghulam Mustafa LGen Syed Absar Hussain

The Army Strategic Forces Command, (reporting name: ASFC), is an important and major combatant command of Pakistan Army, tasked with deployment of land-based space weapons and associated systems. Its comparable command includes the PAF's missile command and the Navy's strategic command, all commands formed the unified command and control mechanism under the directorship and leadership of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee.

Significantly, it is a newer component of administrative corps of Pakistan Army, it is tasked to commands all of Pakistan's land-based strategic forces as well as gaining control of the land-based space operations (such as military satellites), information operations (such as information warfare), missile defense, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR), and strategic deterrence and combating weapons of mass destruction.

History

Before its establishment, the Pakistan Air Force's Air Force Strategic Command was completely responsible for protecting the nuclear assets and had control over the land and air-based nuclear weapons. The Air Force Strategic Command was highly active during the country's nuclear test experiments in 1998, and it had completely dismantle the role of the Army to take any decisions over the nuclear weapons. Its success influenced Chief of Army Staff and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Pervez Musharraf to established a new formation that created in June 1999. General Pervez Musharraf desired to have a formal command and control structure for the employment of Pakistan land based nuclear weapons, and completely independent from the Air Force. The Command was established after Prime minister Navaz Sharif ordered nuclear tests in 1998, under codename Chagai-I and Chagai-II in Balochistan Province. The command structure includes the Nuclear Command Authority, Strategic Plans Division, and the Strategic Forces Commands of Air Force, Naval and Marines. The formation itself became operational in March 2000. It became a fully fledged corps in 2004.

Employment

The official remit of the formation is "the command and employment of all land-based strategic assets." This rather vague description seems to imply that it controls most, if not all, of Pakistans Ballistic launchers. While Pakistan is a nuclear weapons state, it is unknown at this time if ASFC is in possession or control of any nuclear warheads, though presumably in a nuclear war a good percentage of the warheads would be delivered to their targets by the launchers of the ASFC.

List of commanders

1. Lt Gen Ghulam Mustafa, April 2002 – May 2005
2. Lt Gen Khalid Munir Khan, May 2005 – April 2007
3. Lt Gen Syed Absar Hussain, April 2007 – October 2010
4. Lt Gen Jamil Haider, October 2010 – October 2011
5. Lt Gen Syed Tariq Nadeem Gilani, October 2011 – present

Composition

Since 2004, ASFC has been made the equivalent of a corps. It has subordinate divisions, brigades and units. There is scant information on these, except for the 47th Artillery Brigade, which seems to be based in Sargodha.^{[citation needed]}