Army Strategic Forces Command (Pakistan)

Army Strategic Forces Command (Pakistan)
Badge of Army Strategic Forces Command, Rawalpindi
Active	March 2000 - Present
Country	Pakistan
Branch	Pakistan Army
Type	Unified Command Functional Combatant Command
Role	Nuclear warfare
Part of	National Command Authority (NCA)
HQ/Command Control Headquarter	Rawalpindi, Punjab
Colors Identification	Red and White
Commanders
Commander	Lt. Gen. Muhammad Shahbaz Khan
Chief of Staff	Brig. Amer Riaz
Notable commanders	Lt Gen Ghulam Mustafa Lt Gen Syed Absar Hussain

The Army Strategic Forces Command (ASFC) is a major command of the Pakistan Army, which administers land-based nuclear weapons. Its comparable command includes the Pakistan Air Force's Air Force Strategic Command and the Navy's Naval Strategic Forces Command, all commands formed the unified command and control mechanism under the directorship and leadership of the Strategic Plans Division (SPD)

Significantly, it is a newer component of administrative corps of Pakistan Army. It is tasked to command all of Pakistan's land-based strategic forces.

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 land and air-based nuclear weapons. The Air Force Strategic Command was active during the country's nuclear test experiments in 1998, and it had completely dismantled 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 establish a new formation that was 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, completely independent from the Air Force.

The Command was established after Prime Minister Nawaz 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, and the Pakistan Navy. 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 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.

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 21 Artillery Division (Pano Aqil) and 22 Artillery Division (Sargodha), which seems to be missile artillery divisions. Previously 47 Artillery Brigade was reported at Kirana .

List Of Commanders ASFC

Commander Army Strategic Forces Command		Tenure Start	Tenure End
10.	Lieutenant General Muhammad Shahbaz Khan	December 2022
9.	Lieutenant General Muhammad Ali	December 2020	December 2022
8.	Lieutenant General Qazi Muhammad Ikram Ahmad	October 2018	December 2020
7.	Lieutenant General Mian Muhammad Hilal Hussain	September 2015	October 2018
6.	Lieutenant General Obaid Ullah Khan	January 2014	September 2015
5.	Lieutenant General Syed Tariq Nadeem Gilani	October 2011	December 2013
4.	Lieutenant General Jamil Haider,	October 2010	October 2011
3.	Lieutenant General Syed Absar Hussain,	April 2007	October 2010
2.	Lieutenant General Khalid Munir Khan,	May 2005	April 2007
1.	Lieutenant General Ghulam Mustafa,	April 2002	May 2005