Pakistan Ordinance Factory

Society Military and Strategic Issues
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My father had been part of POF over the course of his military carreer.

http://www.pof.gov.pk/maboutus.htm

*The Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF), responsible for conventional weapons production, is located in Wah Cantonnement. POF is a government organization operating under the Defence Production Division in Pakistan’s Ministry of Defence. The Pakistan Ordnance Factories is a complex of arms and ammunition manufacturing factories employing more than 40,000 personnel. POF provided the weapons and ammunitions to the Pakistan Army and all their foreign clients. However, since POF can not produce the complete inventory of the Pakistani Army’s armament needs, a high content of the Armed Force requirements are imported. * *During their colonial rule, British built sixteen ordnance Factories which at the time of partition in 1947 all fell to Indian control. Pakistan’s first Prime Minister, Khan Liaqat Ali Khan, issued a directive within four months of the creation of Pakistan to establish an ordnance Factory in collaboration with British Royal ordnance to manufacture 303 rifle and its ammunition in Rawalpindi. Pakistan’s second Prime Minister, Khawaja Nazim-ud-din, did the ground breaking ceremony for four workshops in a small town of Wah.

*The Pakistan Ordnance Factories organization has fourteen large complexes at Wah: *

  1. *Weapons Factory *
  2. *Machine Gun Factory *
  3. *Small Arms Ammunition Factory *
  4. *Tank Ammunition Factory *
  5. *Medium Artillery Ammunition Factory *
  6. *Heavy Artillery Ammunition Factory *
  7. *Brass Mill *
  8. *Steel Foundry *
  9. *Tungsten Carbide Factory *
  10. *Tungsten Alloy Factory *
  11. *Explosives Factory *
  12. *Propellants Factory *
  13. *Filling Factory *
  14. *Clothing Factory for Uniforms *
    *The two main subsidiaries – Wah Industries Ltd., and Wah Nobel Ltd. – were established to utilise spare capacities of Factories for commercial applications. Subsequently Hi-Tech Plastics Ltd., Wah Nobel Chemicals Ltd., Wah Nobel Detonators Ltd., and Attock Chemicals Ltd., were set up to meet the requirement of civil market. Founded in 1962, Wah Nobel is a joint venture between Saab Sweden, Almisehal Saudi Arabia and the Pakistan Ordnance Factories. *
    *POF produce approximately 70 major products for supply of Army, Navy and Air Force. The main products include automatic rifle; light medium and heavy machine guns, complete range of mortar and artillery ammunitions, aircraft ammunition and anti-aircraft ammunitions, tank ammunition and anti-tank ammunitions, bombs, grenades, land mines, pyrotechnics and signal stores etc. *
    *Starting form raw materials, all other inputs needed for the manufacture of arms and ammunition such as brass, gilding metal clad steel, steel products carbide and tungsten alloy products, fuzes all types of gun, rocket and artillery propellants, and all types of explosives are produced in POF. During the 1990s there was a massive influx of new technologies which permitted an upgrade of production technology. This involves the use of modern equipment e.g. robotics, CNC machines, microprocessor - controlled processes, and automation. Major investments were made in CNC machines and computerisation of management and control systems. To augment the product and tool & gauge designing facilities, a modern CAD system was installed. Quality control, proof firing and inspection are carried out by the inspection and Technical Development Directorate of General Headquarters. *
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Impressive stuff. Thanks for posting 5Abi. :k:

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Good video.

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Yup, Thanks for posting this thread 5Abi! :k:

POF is an excellent organization and gathers a lot of respect from everywhere. Plus Wah Cantt is also one of Pakistan’s most ideal localities.

In what dept or capacity did your dad serve at POF and how did he find the day to day functioning there?

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very good, didnt know pakistan exported to over 40 countries

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POF is really doing a wonderful job but they will have to incorporate locals manufacturer llike in Darra Adam Khel etc. I think they are already doing that but at minimal scale.

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^ Oh bhai, they need to move ahead, not incorporate hand made tribal darra made technology!

Ive been there numerous times, its still using alot of stuff that a CAM/CNC in north america would call old stuff, but for Pakistan, its definitely a very good facility. Alot of friends that I know from E&ME college were offered to work there, they try and get more and more bright civilians there and thats a step in the right direction. I can only see things getting better and better provided they continue to acquire new technology. This facility should also be a role model for HMC etc, which are running in loss.

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Spock, speaking of EME College, which year did you graduate and from which dept? NUST is another excellent institution in Pakistan that's making us proud.

khumar bhai.....
khumar bhai.....
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POF aiming higher;

http://dawn.com/2006/11/10/nat12.htm

‘POF to be made hub of industrial activity’

WAH CANTT, Nov 9: Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF) have been opened for joint ventures, joint training and joint research and development with private sector. “We want to make POF a hub of national industrial activities,” said POF Board Chairman Lt-Gen Syed Sabahat Hussain at the concluding day of the two-day seminar on “Private-Public Sector Partnership”.

Lt-Gen Hussain said at the time of partition in 1947, “we had no industrial base at all. All had to be started from scratch”.

During the last 55 years we have made tremendous progress in every industrial field, and with the passage of time Pakistan has become the only Muslim nuclear power in the world, he said.

While presenting his Vision 2020, Lt-Gen Hussain said public and private sector partnership was the foremost goal of the present management of this premier defence production organisation.

The POF Board chairman said there was no dearth of resources in the country. Our talented experts had excelled in all spheres of life the world over.

He complimented the speakers for presenting thought provoking papers during the seminar.

Earlier, Maj-Gen Zaheer Ahmad Khan, Director-General Military Vehicles, Research and Development Establishment (MVRDE), presented the introduction of his organisation and said MVRDE had been engaged with as many as 20 private companies in connection with the production of various equipment.

Secretary Board of Investment Talat Rasheed Mian presented his paper on “Investment Climate and Opportunities in Pakistan”. He said during the last seven years our macro-economic conditions had been stabilised enormously.

He said as a result of policy reforms, we have succeeded in fast tracking privatisation, liberalisation and deregulation process of various sectors.

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Haris, I actually transferred abroad after a few semesters. No doubt its an amazing instituition, and back EME had an amazing faculty. Having attended that instituition, there are some things I wanted to point out, pros and cons of having the military run things there:

Pros:
- No strikes or political non-sense, which caused so many problems in UET and GIKi, you are there to study, and not indulge in politics etc, and the army made sure this was the case and you got your degree in time! They made us civilian students sign bonds to assure our non-involvement in politics
- The army administered entrance test which at that time had 43,000 applicants, out of which 180 get selected for various engineering disciplines was very good, filters out the best students. Now before someone starts saying its rigged and all, I assure you, all the 100 or so students that made it to the EME in the batch I applied in, I know them al, they were all extremely brilliant students.
- Good support by the Ministry of Sciences and Tech, I remember we got alot of scholarships and it was good for the intelligent students from poor and backward areas too

Cons:
- Having army cadets in the class whose selection was on army basis rather than academic bases (like the civilians, or nustians as they call them), was a HUGE drawback. These GCs in the class were not meant to be in the same academic league as the academic cream of Pakistan, it was tough for them, especially if the grading was relative, and it held the teachers etc back too. That prevented some of the instructors, particularly the military faculty, to make their courses more challenging.
- Some of the way the things are done in the military, that hinders active learning and research that is so required these days at a top institiution. For instance, back then, internet was always a debatable topic in the college, quite rightly so because they had alot of defence stuff going on there, particularly the Al-Khalid schematics and all. Things such as these were obstructing some students to really stand out.

I have heard NUST is now seperating itself from the army administration, though this would sound like a good move, but alot of the stuff in that instituition that really stood out was because of the military, so lets see what happens.

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good video :k:

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Iteresting video... I have been to Wah, and gotta admit, its pretty nice.

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Darra I thimk does do some exports from what I heard, but its minimal. I think the Army should incorporate these people, it may even help by making sure the weapons there dont fall into the wrong hands as they often do. The quality is something the Army will have to help improve though. Still, bringing these people into the mainstream is proably better for everyone.

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Incorporating those people is no good. POF continues to rely on new state of the art machinery (unless these dara people can operate CAM machines), and they dont need those people who make guns by hands, they'll be laymen, its not feasible.

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There has to be some way for the gun manufacturers of Darra to be brought into the mainstream. Its rather dangerous to let these people make guns which can be sold to just about anyone without a care. The govt should atleast give these people the proper training to make even more superior weaponry, and then buy them out…

khumar bhai.....
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If you goto alaqa-e-gher, you will find lots of ammunition shops operating over there, but Pakistani laws are no longer applicable there, so they are free to make them. I dont think its dangerous, they are doing that for a livelihood, and have been doing so for a long time and have a right to do so. And dara made weapons are hardly reliable, no one buys them, the pistols they make are notorious for rusting, jamming and even blowing ones own hand...

POF operates in a different manner, machines and all, so these people cant be utilized. I mean take carpet weavers for instance, we cant expect them to find jobs in machine making carpet factories. crude analogy, but explains it though...

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He was in the EME Corps (Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, he has degrees in both fields, one from UET Lahore and one from UK), so POF was a naturally home to him. Inspections, quality control, testing, implementation, demos, R&D, you name it.

anything further. ill have to PM you.

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More than 70 dead and atleast as many injured:

Pakistan suicide bombers hit arms factory - Telegraph