Following the four-day military conflict with India in May, Pakistan created a new Army Rocket Force Command (ARFC). Some dismiss it as a hurried move in the aftermath of recent Indo-Pak tensions. Others suspect it signals a shift toward escalation. Both views miss the point. Background discussions with relevant authorities suggest the ARFC is not an overnight reaction but rather the culmination of a long, painstaking evolution in Pakistan's conventional military doctrine.

For decades, Pakistan has been grappling with a fundamental challenge on how to balance India's overwhelming conventional superiority without sliding into overreliance on nuclear weapons. The answer, refined gradually by military planners and scientists, has been to strengthen long-range conventional strike options. The ARFC is the manifestation of that journey.

At its core, ARFC consolidates Pakistan's long-range rocket and missile capabilities under a single command structure. Until now, artillery divisions with long-range vectors were dispersed,........

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