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Why Pakistan Must Prioritize Jet-Powered Loitering Munitions Quwa Premium
Executive Summary
The brief but high-intensity conflict of May 2025 with India was a watershed moment, revealing with stark clarity that high-speed, standoff missile systems pose a severe and immediate threat to Pakistan’s current air defence infrastructure.
To counter this threat, Pakistan must develop and field a robust, credible, and scalable deterrent. While the indigenous development of a large inventory of loitering munitions (LMs) is a necessary and logical step, the type of munition chosen is of critical strategic importance.
An over-reliance on slower, piston and electrically-powered loitering munitions – while valuable for tactical roles – would create a predictable and ultimately counterable threat for a sophisticated adversary.
This analysis argues that prioritizing the indigenous development and mass production of jet-powered systems is a strategic imperative.
A two-pronged strategy is required: complementing affordable, numerous electric-powered drones for tactical, attritional use with high-speed, jet-powered effectors for strategic applications.
These jet-powered systems are the essential component for saturating advanced, multi-layered air defences, holding high-value, time-sensitive targets at risk from standoff ranges, and thereby controlling escalation dynamics in a crisis.
Pakistan possesses a latent but surprisingly capable foundation to build such systems.
Programs like the KaGeM V3 miniature cruise missile and the Hadaf-series of target drones provide direct technological and industrial starting points.
By leveraging the advanced R&D capabilities of state-owned entities (SOEs) like the National Engineering and Scientific Commission (NESCOM) and the National Aerospace Science and Technology Park (NASTP), and critically, integrating the industrial capacity and efficiency of the private sector, Pakistan can create a scalable and sustainable production model.
This strategic pivot would not only enhance national security but also foster a more efficient, cost-effective, and export-oriented domestic defence industry.
Introduction
The recent May 2025 conflict with India served as a significant indicator of South Asia’s evolving military dynamics, fundamentally altering geostrategic calculations. India’s effective employment of high-speed, standoff weapons, particularly the BrahMos supersonic-cruising missile, presented a formidable challenge to Pakistan’s air defence network.
This experience exposed a vulnerability and underscored the urgent need for a credible counter-capability. Consequently, Pakistan’s imperative to build a large and diverse inventory of loitering munitions (LMs) has become undeniable as a means to offset an adversary’s quantitative advantages and hold a wide and varied target set at risk.
Pakistan appears to be moving in this direction, with a number of indigenous designs emerging from both state-owned enterprises and burgeoning private sector firms.
However, a pressing strategic concern is that near-term acquisition strategies may focus excessively on slower piston and electrically-powered systems, potentially through straightforward technology transfers or licensed production of existing foreign designs. While these systems are valuable for specific tactical applications, an over-reliance on these slower platforms could engender a false sense of security.
It would create a class of predictable and less survivable threats that a peer-competitor can, and will, more easily adapt to and counter. The May conflict demonstrated that India came prepared with layered and escalating response options; a singular, one-dimensional offensive response from Pakistan would be a strategic error.
To effectively saturate sophisticated, multi-layered air defences and manage escalation, Pakistan must prioritize the indigenous development and full-scale production of jet-powered loitering munitions. This approach, which emphasizes speed, range, and payload, would not be an entirely new endeavour.
Rather, it represents a logical and necessary evolution, building upon a pre-existing and surprisingly robust domestic technology base that can be leveraged for rapid, scalable, and strategically impactful results.
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