Introduction:
The Babur missile is the first cruise missile fielded by Pakistan. It is capable of carrying either conventional or nuclear warheads and has a reported range of 500 km (310 miles). It is reported that it can hit its target with "pinpoint accuracy" and can be fired from warships, submarines and fighter jets. It is designed to avoid radar detection and penetrate undetected through a defensive system. The cruise missile is a terrain hugging missile and it has up-to-date navigation and guidance system and a high degree of maneuverability. Serial production of Babur started in October 2005.

Design
In 1998, six Tomahawk cruise missiles fired at Taliban bases in Afghanistan by US destroyers mis-fired and landed in Pakistan. It is speculated that Pakistan and China seized upon the opportunity to reverse-engineer the Tomahawk and develop its own copy, though no evidence exists for this. Pakistan could not have salvaged the embedded systems of the Tomahawks, since they are likely to be in classified programming languages. However, the propulsion system appears to approximate that of Tomahawk according to video of its launch. Chinese assistance is further speculated to have been taken to develop its guidance system.
Babur's guidance is believed to be the accurate GPS/INS system. Co-ordinates are fed into it before launch and it flies to the target by following GPS waypoints. Course correction is done by INS. However it is unlikely that it uses the sophisticated TERCOM guidance of the Tomahawk as was claimed by Pakistani media. This can be safely concluded as even China has not mastered that sensitive technology.
Babur is believed to be extremely accurate. It is steered by an inertial navigation system (INS). INS continuously measures the movement, speed and position of the missile. It is equipped with precision guidance system that allows the missile to hit small targets. It has been powered by cruise turbo-fan engine which enables the missile to reach approximate speed of 880 km/h (550 miles/h). Babur design features can be compared with American BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missile. However, no confirmation of range or accuracy of the missile has been made.

Operation
On August 12th, 2005 Pakistan publicly announced that it has successfully test fired nuclear-capable Babur cruise missile. Missile was launched from a land based transporter erector launcher (TEL) . With this test Pakistan became of twelve countries that possess cruise missile technology. Babur is part of Pakistan's Hatf missile series. The unannounced initial launch on 11 August 2005 caught much of the international community by surprise due to the technically advance nature of the missile, as well as the fact that Pakistan did not notify India of its test-firing even though the existing notification agreement is limited to ballistic missile testing only.
Currently Pakistan is looking into modification that will enable the missile to be launched from its F-16s, Mirage and A-5 air platforms and naval platform such as Agosta 90B attack submarines and its Tariq class frigates. In a statement issued by ISPR the spokesman said that Pakistan will be modifying the missile for air and sea launch configurations in coming months. He added Pakistan is also working on a more advanced version of Babur (possibly named Babur-2) with a range of 1,000km with increased payload.
After many debates it is now confirmed that the second version of Babur cruise missile have been developed after some modifications which is capable to be fired from submarines in this case may be Agosta-90B or fighter aircraft such as JF-17, F-16, or A-5 Fantan.

Surprise
The sudden test of the Babur missile sent shockwaves through out the world. The United States gave a muted response as they probably believed that the Tomahawks were being studied. But the greatest shock came to India which, though gave no official response, was criticized by its media for not knowing beforehand. Some criticized the Indian intelligence incorrectly, despite a media report had reported Pakistan's building of a missile based on Tomahawks with Chinese nexus a few months before the test. Pakistani defence analysts and strategists themselves admit the origins of Babur. Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf praised the Pakistani scientists and engineers by saying 'It has all been done indigenously without any outside assistance. I am proud of you and the whole nation is proud of you,' he told Pakistani scientists. He also hinted that other test would soon began but not yet confirmed, Musharraf said Pakistan was not into an arms race with anyone but would never compromise on its strategy of defensive deterrence.