An interesting article from the Guardian’s reporter at this year’s IDEAS expo in Pakistan. He writes that Pakistan is about to join the USA and Israel in becoming the only country to manufacture weaponised drones.
At the expo, Pakistan has been trying to sell weapon-carrying drones to Turkey and the Gulf Arab states, and the reported writes that his sources indicate a great deal of excitement from the delegates of those countries.
The Pakistani drone does not match the capabilities of the US Predator drones that have been operating in the FATA, but it is apparently the most advanced system that Pakistan’s allies have the option to buy as the US and Israel do not sell their weaponised drones except to a very select group of allies.
Pakistan developing combat drones | World news | The Guardian
Pakistan is on the cusp of joining an elite group of countries capable of manufacturing unmanned aircraft capable of killing as well as spying, a senior defence official has claims.
Publicly, Islamabad, which officially objects to lethal drone strikes carried out by the CIA along its border with Afghanistan, says it is only developing remote-controlled aircraft for surveillance purposes.
But last week, during a major arms fair held in Karachi, military officials briefed some of Pakistan’s closest allies about efforts by the army to develop its own combat unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
“The foreign delegates were quite excited by what Pakistan has achieved,” said the official, who was closely involved with organising the four-day International Defence Exhibition and Seminar (Ideas). “They were briefed about a UAV that can be armed and has the capability to carry a weapon payload.”
The official said Pakistan wanted to demonstrate to friendly countries, principally Turkey and the Gulf, that it can be self-sufficient in a technology that is revolutionising warfare and which is currently dominated by a handful of countries that do not readily share the capability.
“It does not have the efficiency and performance as good as Predator,” he said, referring to the US combat drone widely used to attack militant targets. “But it does exist.”
