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Pakistan said on May 8 that its military downed 25 Indian loitering munitions across the country, after what it called a “serious provocation” from New Delhi that wounded four soldiers and killed a civilian.
“Debris of Israeli-made Harop drones is being recovered from various areas across Pakistan,” the military said in a statement.
In an earlier statement, Pakistan military spokesman Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said that 12 Harop drones had been shot down over Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, Bahawalpur, Attock, Ghotki, Gujranwala, Chakwal, and other cities overnight.
The four Pakistani troops were wounded in Lahore, reportedly at an air base. Meanwhile, the civilian was killed in Ghotki, according to the Pakistani military.
The Harop is a loitering munition developed by Israel Aerospace Industries. Loitering munitions are designed to hover or loiter above the battlefield, waiting for targets to be exposed, and attack upon the operator’s command.
The loitering munition is equipped with an electro-optical system that allows the operator to track and engage moving targets via a two-way datalink. It can be also equipped with a passive radar seeker to locate and attack radar sites. The munition can be also equipped with both guidance types, allowing a radar site to be targeted even if it stops emitting after being detected.
The Harop is armed with a 16-kg high-explosive warhead. However, if the loitering munition doesn’t find a target, it is designed to return to the launch point, meaning it can be recovered and reused.
It also has impressive endurance, being able to loiter for around six hours with an operational range of up to 200 kilometers.
Tensions between the nuclear powers have soared since the April 22 terrorist attack on the resort town of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir. New Delhi held militant groups based in Pakistan responsible for the terrorist attack. Islamabad rejected the accusation.
On May 7, Indian retaliatory strikes against Pakistan claimed the lives of 31 civilians, including women and children, according to Pakistani officials. Indian authorities also said that Pakistani shelling killed at least 15 Indian civilians on the same day.
While an all-out war remains highly unlikely, the latest Indian drone attack shows that the dangerous confrontation is still far from being over.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has already vowed to respond to the Indian strikes on Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
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