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Why is Pakistan procuring an off-the-shelf tank?

Introduction On January 06 photos emerged purporting that a NORINCO VT4 main battle tank (MBT) was in Pakistan, ostensibly for trials for an apparent Pakistan Army bid for an off-the-shelf MBT to augment its growing – albeit slowly – force of Heavy…

The Impact of Pakistan’s Harba dual-AShM and LACM

by Bilal Khan 199Views 0Likes

Introduction On January 03, the Pakistan Navy announced that it test-fired a new anti-ship cruise missile (ASCM) with land-attack capabilities, the “Harba.” The dual-ASCM/land-attack cruise missile (LACM) was fired from an Azmat-class fast attack craft (FAC), the PNS Himmat. Seemingly based on…

Despite tension, US-Pakistan defence ties unlikely to end

by Bilal Khan 205Views 0Likes

U.S. President Donald J. Trump began 2018 with a tweet accusing Pakistan of duplicity with regards to the ongoing – and over 16-year-long – U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan.[1] Trump reiterated how the U.S. provided Pakistan with $33 billion U.S. in funding…

The Push to Boost Pakistan’s Space Program

by Bilal Khan 192Views 0Likes

Introduction In his speech during the AirTech ’17 conference in December 2017 at Air University Islamabad, the Chief of Air Staff (CAS) of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), Air Chief Marshal (ACM) Sohail Aman, stated that Pakistan would send two astronauts into space…

China-Pakistan Relations: Why it matters for Pakistan

by Bilal Khan 171Views 0Likes

Prologue This article is part of a series Quwa will publish under Quwa Premium through 2018. For this week, we are broadly overviewing the key aspects of Pakistan’s relations with China, which – in some respects, such as defence procurement – are…

Understanding India’s Entry into the Wassenaar Arrangement

by Bilal Khan 192Views 0Likes

Introduction On December 07, the then 41-member Wassenaar Arrangement (WA) unanimously approved of India’s entry into the WA. Like the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), which India joined in June 2016 as its 35th member, the WA is a multilateral body designed…

Pakistan’s Defence Industry: High Risk and High Reward Partnerships

by Bilal Khan 177Views 0Likes

Prologue: This is a continuation of the Quwa Premium articles discussing the Pakistani defence industry, specifically its inability to produce a domestic marketplace to which the Pakistani armed forces and foreign customers can consult, its nascent private sector activity and the steps Pakistan…

Analysis: The Case for Pakistan Procuring the FC-31 Gyrfalcon

by Bilal Khan 211Views 0Likes

Officially, the Pakistan Air Force’s (PAF) fifth-generation fighter (FGF) program is being executed under ‘Project Azm’ (resolve). Under the PAF’s long-term plan, Pakistan Aeronautical Complex Kamra has been entrusted to manufacture a FGF as well as active electronically-scanned array radars.

Pakistan’s Defence Industry: Constructing a Domestic Marketplace & Examining Offsets

by Bilal Khan 177Views 0Likes

Constructing a Domestic Marketplace of Products One of the drawbacks of nascent private sector activity in the defence industry, especially in new product development, is that Pakistan lacks a domestic marketplace to consult for its requirements. Thus, each of the service arms…

Pakistan’s Product Development Efforts and the Role of the Private Sector

by Bilal Khan 184Views 0Likes

Sticking to time-tested designs that are proven to work is not inherently a problem. However, with Pakistan’s focus to boosting exports, then product catalogues will face scrutiny.