Army Strategic Forces Command (Pakistan)

The Pakistan Army Strategic Forces Command, known as ASFC, is the strategic and missile formation of the Pakistan Army. It is headquartered at the Joint Staff Headquarters at Chaklala near Rawalpindi and controls the land-based ballistic and cruise missile systems of the army, both nuclear and conventional. Its structure is modelled on a conventional corps and its operations resemble those of the Regiment of Artillery. The formation was organised at command level in March 2000, and in 2002 the command was given sole responsibility for the army's ground-based strategic nuclear deterrent, with the first battalions of missile batteries raised then. The command holds command and control of the deployed nuclear weapons on the missile systems, while the Pakistan Navy set up its own separate strategic command in 2004.