Washington: Director of US National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard Wednesday warned that Pakistan’s advancing missile programme could eventually put the United States within range, flagging it as part of a growing set of global threats to the American homeland.
Presenting the intelligence community’s 2026 Annual Threat Assessment, Gabbard said China and Russia are developing advanced delivery systems capable of bypassing US missile defences, while North Korea already has intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach American soil and continues to expand its nuclear arsenal.
She added that Pakistan’s long-range ballistic missile development could evolve into intercontinental systems capable of striking the US, placing it in a category of emerging strategic concern for American security planners.
“The IC assesses that China and Russia are developing advanced delivery systems meant to be capable of penetrating or bypassing US missile defences. North Korea’s ICBMs can already reach US soil, and it is committed to expanding its nuclear arsenal,” she said.
“Pakistan’s long-range ballistic missile development potentially could include ICBMs with the range capable of striking the Homeland,” Gabbard told members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Her 34-page assessment of the World Threat gave a similar assessment.
“Pakistan continues to develop increasingly sophisticated missile technology that provides its military the means to develop missile systems with the capability to strike targets beyond South Asia, and if these trends continue, ICBMs that would threaten the US,” the report said.
According to the report, during the past year, South Asia remained a source of enduring security challenges for the US. India–Pakistan relations remain a risk for nuclear conflict, given past conflicts where these two nuclear states squared off, creating the danger of escalation.
“The terrorist attack last year near Pahalgam, in the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, demonstrated the dangers of terrorist attacks sparking conflict. President Trump’s intervention de-escalated the most recent nuclear tensions, and we assess that neither country seeks to return to open conflict, but that conditions exist for terrorist actors to continue to create catalysts for crises,” it said.
Gabbard told lawmakers that the US’s secure nuclear deterrent continues to ensure safety in the Homeland against strategic threats. However, Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and Pakistan have been researching and developing an array of novel, advanced, or traditional missile delivery systems with nuclear and conventional payloads that put our Homeland within range.
“The IC assesses that threats to the Homeland will expand collectively to more than 16,000 missiles by 2035, from the current assessed figure of more than 3,000 missiles,” she said.
According to the report, relations between Pakistan and the Taliban have been tense, with intermittent cross-border clashes, as Islamabad has become increasingly frustrated with anti-Pakistan terrorist groups’ presence in Afghanistan, while Islamabad faces growing terrorist violence.
February 26, the Afghan Taliban launched strikes against Pakistani military positions along their shared border, claiming retaliation for prior Pakistani airstrikes. Pakistan responded within hours by bombing Afghan border provinces and the capital Kabul — the first time Pakistan has struck Afghanistan’s urban centres. The fighting has continued since it erupted, it said.
“Pakistan’s army chief warned this month that lasting peace requires the Taliban to sever ties with militants targeting Pakistan. The Taliban’s public posture has been to call for dialogue, but it has denied harbouring anti-Pakistani militants,” the report said.
