Ghaznavi

Ghaznavi (غزنوی) is an Persian family name meaning "from Ghazni", it may refer to:

People

Other uses

Ghaznavi (missile)

The Ghaznavi (Urdu:غزنوی; official codename: Hatf–III Ghaznavi), is a hypersonic and surface to surface short range ballistic missile designed and developed by the National Development Complex, in service with the Pakistan Army's strategic command since 2004. With an optimal range of 290 km, it is named after the 11th century Muslim Turkic conqueror Mahmud of Ghazni. The missile has a length of 9.64m, diameter of 0.99 m, launch weight of 5256 kg and is powered by a single stage solid fuel rocket motor. It is believed influenced from a Chinese design, the M-11 (NATO reporting name: CSS-7).

Design history

Initially, the Pakistan government was actively pushing of acquiring the M-11 missiles from China on purpose of a quick deployment.Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto personally lobbied in China for the M-11 missiles, but unable to do so after the intense pressure mounted by the United States and the MTCR's strict monitoring of prevention of the technology transfers of the missiles. Development on Ghaznavi started in 1990s after the refusal of export of M-11 missiles from China to Pakistan. The Ghaznavi was pursuit alongside with the Abdali program, and its features extremely close to Chinese M-11. The Ghaznavi program went to NDC and designed the missile which was extremely close to that Chinese M-11.