Pakistan want Turkish GAZAP warheads to ensure IAF's Tezpur and Bagdogra bases are within reach of Shaheen missiles: Report

Pakistan is considering the prospect of integrating Turkish GAZAP warheads into its long-range missiles to match India's capabilities, leading defence portals have reported. They warned that the development remains "unconfirmed" amidst reports of Islamabad and Ankara trying to take their military association to the next level, alongside Riyadh, if possible.

The Turkish GAZAP is a thermobaric-fragmentation warhead designed for air-dropped bombs, and Pakistan reportedly wants to explore the possibility of making it compatible with its surface-to-surface or cruise missiles. These are hybrid warheads that combine the devastating blast effects of a "vacuum bomb" with longer-lasting blast waves and the lethal high-speed metal shrapnel of a missile.

Some reports claim that GAZAP, which means "Anger" in Turkish, is the most powerful new conventional aerial bomb with the Turkish Air Force. 

If Islamabad manages to crack the GAZAP configuration, its missiles could hopefully pose a threat to India's fortified airbase infrastructure and command-and-control nodes, Defence Security Asia said in a report. In the event of another limited conflict, this capability could prevent Pakistan from having to mull over a ceasefire, as was the case during Operation Sindoor, by threatening India's frontline combat aviation assets. The bottom line is that Islamabad wants its forces to be capable of targeting Indian Air Force bases such as those in Tezpur and Bagdogra, the report added.

It is Pakistan's Shaheen and Babur-class long-range missiles that stand to profit if the integration plan becomes fruitful. If fitted to Pakistan's Shaheen-III variant, which reportedly has a range of up to 2,750 kilometres, the GAZAP—weighing 970 kilograms—could make a conventional strike deep inside mainland India possible, Defence Security Asia said.

"Turkish officials describe the GAZAP as three to four times more powerful than an equivalent US-made 2,000-pound bomb, a claim that, while not independently verified... If adapted for missile integration, the warhead's outer structure would need to be reinforced to withstand launch-phase acceleration, atmospheric re-entry pressures, and terminal guidance corrections, requiring significant redesign rather than simple installation," the report read.