Pakistan conducts first known anti-ship firing of Taimoor missile

A model of the GIDS Taimoor cruise missile exhibited at the IDEX 2025 (Janes/Shaurav Gairola )

The Pakistan Navy has carried out the first known live firing of the Taimoor air‑launched cruise missile in an explicit anti‑ship role.

In a statement issued on 21 April, Pakistan's Inter‑Services Public Relations (ISPR) office said the firing demonstrates the navy's ability to ”detect, target and decisively neutralise enemy sea-based threats at extended ranges”.

“This demonstration by Pakistan Navy marks a pivotal elevation of national defence capability, further strengthening [the] Pakistan Armed Forces' multi-dimensional co-ordinated strike posture and capabilities in the conventional domain”, the statement added.

Accompanying the statement is a still photograph and a video depicting a floating barge fitted with radar reflective materials, which has presumably been constructed to emulate the signature of a surface combatant.

In the video, a projectile in orange livery can be seen impacting the barge following a sea-skimming terminal flight path, which suggests that the Taimoor missile achieved a direct hit in the test.

While the Taimoor had previously been flight-tested against land targets by the Pakistan Air Force, the 21 April exercise appears to mark the first publicly disclosed live firing of the missile against a sea‑based target.

ISPR did not disclose the location of the firing, nor the launch platform used in the test.

The statement also avoided identifying the role that the Pakistan Air Force might have played the firing, despite the Pakistan Navy not operating fixed‑wing strike aircraft capable of deploying the missile.

January test

Taimoor is a domestically developed air‑launched cruise missile produced under Pakistan's state‑owned Global Industrial & Defence Solutions (GIDS) conglomerate.