And yet another great article on our arms industry…
http://www.clw.org/cat/newswire/nw021401.html#Pakistan
Pakistan To Sign Big Arms Export Deals With Several Countries
by Kaleem Omar
The arms export drive initiated by the Musharraf government has begun to bear fruit with the signing in Islamabad on Saturday of an agreement with Malaysia for the sale of military equipment, under which the Southeast Asian nation will initially buy $ 21 million worth of missiles and other weapons from Pakistan in two separate deals. The agreement, which also provides for Pakistan to buy certain items of military equipment manufactured by Malaysia, underscores the growing friendly ties between the two countries and is a good example of how developing countries can promote trade between themselves in a sector that hitherto has been mostly the preserve of western and former Soviet bloc industrial countries.
Saturday’s signing ceremony was preceded by a meeting between Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf and a visiting eight-member Malaysian defence delegation, headed by Defence Minister Dato Seri Mohammad Najib Bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak. The delegation, which includes members of the Malaysian parliament, the chief of the navy, the deputy chief of the army and the undersecretary of the ministry of defence, arrived in Islamabad on Thursday on a five-day visit to this country at the invitation of Pakistan’s foreign minister, Abdul Sattar. The delegation met Sattar on Friday and also visited the Pakistan Ordnance Factories at Wah and the Heavy Industries tank factories at Taxila.
During its visit to POF the delegation held discussions with its chairman, Lt. General Abdul Qayyum, who briefed the delegation on Pakistan’s defence potential with particular reference to POF, a complex of 14 factories which have a total workforce of 35,000 and manufacture a wide range of small arms and other weapons. At the Heavy Industries complex at Taxila the delegation was received by its chairman, Lt. General Hamid Javaid, who briefed the delegation’s members on the armoured personnel carriers being manufactured by the organisation. The delegation was also shown the complex’s production line for the Al-Khalid main battle tank (MBT), which Pakistan has spent nearly a decade developing.
The Al-Khalid is much cheaper than comparable MBTs made by other countries. At present, Malaysia has no MBTs. But it is now said to be interested in remedying this situation, which has opened up good prospects for Pakistan to sell its Al-Khalid tanks.
During its stay in Pakistan, the delegation is expected to also have meetings with several other Pakistani officials, including Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Abdul Aziz Mirza, Chief of the Air Staff Air Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir, and Major General Ali Hamid, director-general plans at the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee headquarters in Chaklala, and chief organiser of the Ideas 2000 arms exhibition, who last month was appointed head of the recently created Defence Exports Promotion Organisation (DEPO). The decision to create DEPO was taken on January 13 at a meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee chaired by General Musharraf. To be modeled along the lines of Britain’s Defence Export Sales Organisation, DEPO will function as a sort of defence equivalent of the Export Promotion Bureau and will be responsible for coordinating all efforts to boost Pakistan’s defence exports.
According to State Bank figures, Pakistan’s defence exports in 1999 totaled only $ 13 million, but this figure seems to be way off the mark, since many export sales by individual units of Pakistan’s state-owned defence industries are not reported. According to Major General Ali Hamid, the actual figure is closer to about $ 150 million to $ 200 million a year. This figure is now expected to go up significantly because the prices of Pakistani defence products are in many cases much less than those of similar products from western countries, and even much less, in some cases, than the prices of equipment from China.
Pakistan’s defence exports should get a big boost when some of the export deals initiated with potential foreign buyers during the Ideas 2000 exhibition begin to materialise. The two deals signed with Malaysia on Saturday are the first such deals to be concluded in the wake of Ideas 2000.
The fact that the Malaysian delegation includes the navy chief is being seen by observers here as especially significant because Malaysia is said to have expressed interest in buying an Agosta 90B submarine from Pakistan, similar to the one now being built at the naval dockyard in Karachi for the Pakistan navy, under a transfer-of-technology agreement signed between Pakistan and DCNI of France in 1994.
Admiral Mirza had hinted at this possibility a few months ago when he told journalists on November 16, during the Ideas 2000 arms expo, that Pakistan was now capable of manufacturing submarines and was “looking for markets in neighbouring countries.”
Pakistan bought three Agosta 90B submarines from DCNI in 1994, under a deal worth nearly a billion dollars. DCNI is the commercial branch of DCN, the French naval shipbuilding company. As DCN’s commercial arm, DCNI handles all operations outside France, including analysis of operational and technical requirements, marketing and sales, international alliances, industrial cooperation and financing, contract management, and logistics and after-sales support.
DCNI is the prime contractor for the Pakistan navy’s Agosta 90B submarine programme, which includes a substantial part of technology transfer to the naval dockyard at Karachi. The first of the three 90Bs bought by Pakistan has already been delivered and is in operational service with the Pakistan navy.
The second sub, which is expected to be delivered later this year, is being built partly in France and partly in Pakistan at the naval dockyard. The third is being built entirely in Pakistan.
The agreement with DCNI also allows Pakistan to build Agosta 90B submarines for countries in certain regional markets, including the Middle East and Southeast Asia. It is under this provision that Pakistan is now negotiating to build submarines for several countries at the naval dockyard in Karachi. Set up in 1952 by the Pakistan navy, the naval dockyard has undergone major modernisation in recent years. It now has the capability to undertake ambitious indigenous construction projects, including building missile boats, minecounter-measure-vessels, and Agosta 90B submarines. It has well-equipped workshops and highly trained manpower to support a wide range of activities, including repairs of weapon systems, sensors, communication equipment, computer-based systems, acoustic and optronics systems, boilers, turbines, internal combustion engines, auxiliary machinery, hydro-pneumatic control pumps, and other equipment.
During the last two decades, the naval dockyard has completed major rebuilds or refits of 22 submarines, 27 surface ships, 101 missile boats and numerous small naval craft. It has also carried out a number of fleet modernisation and up-gradation programmes, including the installation of surface missiles on ships and submarines, electronic-warfare equipment on ships and aviation units, and the installation on Pakistan navy ships of surface-to-air missiles, radars, sub-surface weapons and sensors, anti-aircraft guns, command and control systems. The naval dockyard, which is now an ISO 9002 certified facility is currently building the third of the Pakistan navy’s three Agosta 90Bs, which are all state-of-the-art submarines equipped with the latest sensors and combat system.
All three Agosta 90Bs are also equipped with the MESMA air-independent propulsion (AIP) system, which increases a conventional submarine’s submerged endurance by a factor of 3 to 4. The MESMA system has no depth limitation, no toxic or explosive products, and allows fast and easy refueling using conventional harbour facilities. It can be controlled locally through programmable logic controllers (PLCs), or remotely through the vessel’s IPMS. The operator can switch the AIP module on or off, monitor performance, and change the power setting from the main control room.
MESMA was developed by a consortium comprising five French companies: Air Liquide, Bertin Technologies, DCN, Thermodyn and Technicatome, and one from Spain: E.N. Bazan. The system features a conventional steam loop heated by a primary circuit burning a gaseous fuel/oxygen mixture. Liquid oxygen is stored at low pressure in a shockresistant cyrogenic tank in a confined compartment. Heat is converted into electrical energy using a conventional steam cycle comprising a steam generator, highspeed turbo-alternators, and a condenser. Oxygen and fuel flow rates are determined directly by power demand. Combustion products are generated at 60 bar and discharged directly overboard without requiring a compressor.
The MESMA system has been fully tested and is now in production. The three MESMA-equipped Agosta 90B submarines bought by the Pakistan navy were the first ever AIP type submarines to win a competitive, international procurement contract. Navy experts say that this AIP-equipped capability should be a big plus selling point in Pakistan’s efforts to obtain orders from other countries to build 90B submarines for them.
Several countries including Saudi Arabia are said to have expressed interest in buying 90Bs from Pakistan. At a price tag of about $ 300 million per sub, sales to these countries and other would give a major boost to Pakistan’s defence exports and could earn it hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign exchange over the next few yeas.
In another development, several African countries have shown interest in buying AI-Zarar tanks from Pakistan. These African countries already have T-59 tanks, but would now like to go in for the AI-Zarar, an upgraded version of the T-59. There are an estimated 20, 000 T-55 and T-59 tanks around the world, but Pakistan is the only country that has the facility to upgrade these tanks, according to Major General Ali Hamid. There are also good prospects for export orders from several countries for the K-8 jet trainer aircraft, which has been jointly developed by the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) Aircraft Manufacturing Factory (AMF) at Kamra and China’s National Aero, Technology. AMF manufactures certain sub-assemblies for the K-8 aircraft.
The K-8, an intermediate and advance jet trainer, is assembled in China. Its components are manufactured in both countries. Plans call for Pakistan’s share in the co-production of the aircraft to be increased from 25 per cent last year to 45 per cent this year. Following that, the plane would be considered for full assembly at Kamra, a sprawling complex of factories and other facilities some 50 miles north of Rawalpindi.
The K-8 is currently being used by the armed forces of China, Myanmar, Pakistan and Zambia. China has 25 K-8s in service, Myanmar 12 and Pakistan 6. The Pakistan Air Force is expected to eventually induct 80 K-8s and K-8Es into its fleet. Zimbabwe and Namibia have reportedly also decided to buy K-8s. Egypt, which had earlier short-listed the K-8E as its new advanced jet trainer, has now decided to buy 80 of the aircraft from China at a price tag of $ 4 million per plane in a deal said to be worth about $ 347 million, including the cost of crew training and logistic support. Between 25 and 45 per cent of this money should come to Pakistan, under the terms of its joint manufacturing agreement with China.
The sale to Egypt was finalised in October last year. The new PAF chief, Air Chief Marshall Mushaf Ali Mir, who was then director-general, PAC Kamra, was quoted as saying at that time that he was “very happy” about the sale. Describing it as a major breakthrough, he said: “This shows that the aircraft has matured over the years and that the few remaining problems associated with it have now been overcome.” He said the K-8 would eventually replace the T-37 trainers at the PAF air academy at Risalpur. “We don’t have to look around for jet trainers like some other air forces are doing at the moment,” he said.
At a post-Ideas 2000 press briefing in Karachi on November 23, Major General Ali Hamid said that official delegations from 35 countries in Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, East Asia and Europe had attended the arms exhibition, besides 22,000 visitors and guests. He said: “The feedback is that Pakistani defence products are of international standards. Pakistani defence products are cheaper, and there are no strings attached to the sales. Thus, Pakistan is a reliable source of supply”.
Sources said that the deals signed with Malaysia on Saturday are the first of several others it is interested in signing with Pakistan. Deals with a number of other countries, including several African and Middle Eastern countries are also said to be in the pipeline, with some of them likely to be concluded in the next few months. Given all this, isn’t it about time that pessimistic newspaper columnists who keep on moaning and groaning about how the Pakistani economy is going from bad to worse started taking note of some of these encouraging developments? Knowing them, however, they will probably go on moaning and groaning. There’s just no pleasing some people it seems.