Pakistan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

sf7pakistan

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I did hear that they gutted them out and turned into EW platforms, Maybe we dont know but they arent actually retired but turned to the role as the DA-20's /blinders squadrons are doing.
The KJ500's bit is odd because after PAF got its last SAAB awacs last year, they put forth 'more interest' toward SAAB to get more of them.


Trueeeeeee, among all the other stuff the heli's got forgotten...
Think PAF is trying to hedge her bets with regards to weapons systems and suppliers. Sweden is a NATO member now and they can be pressurised more effectively now.

As far as helos are concerned, I hope we're looking towards stuff like T-929 and Z-21. Z-10s are good for COIN but they can't do heavy attack helo stuff. I'm foaming at the mouth for Pakistan to do her version of Task Force Normandy from Gulf War and deep strike S400s with attack helos going in low and fast
 

Black Wolf

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Trying to not to get too topic with the J-35A fighter (PLAAF) + FC-31 thread, so responding here instead.



Would you say these "pay us when you can" terms are applicable to some, most or all current Chinese defense exports to Pakistan?





Interestingly, the Government of Pakistan's tweet concerning Beijing's offer of the J-35 and other weapons systems to Islamabad also mentions the "deferment" of $3.7 billion in debt:


From what I've been able to gather, some or all of that $3.7 billion is
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and lent directly to the State Bank of Pakistan, and
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every two years or so.

Apparently some of these loans, perhaps amounting to $1.3 billion or so, was disbursed to Pakistan by March 2021, a few months before Pakistan's J-10C order was announced in June 2021:



Not to say these loans were necessarily issued by ICBC to finance the acquisition of the J-10C as there are a number of other reasons as to why Beijing would want to extend credit to Islamabad, but the timing will inevitably provoke some people's curiosities.



So does this $3.7 billion or a portion thereof represent an open credit facility from Beijing to Islamabad for procuring Chinese arms?
This is my best guess but I'd say that you could maybe chalk most of the big ticket items into the "pay when you can" scheme. And even if they aren't, the Chinese have been very understanding of our situation (sucks to say that this has been the case) and they value the strategic partnership over coming round and banging our door for the money they're owed.

Pakistan is in many regards the test case for not only Chinese systems but the Chinese order or their way of doing things. Legitimacy is key here and since China doesn't do formal alliances like the US, a healthy defence partnership with Pakistan is in my view a major selling point to prospective buyers showing them that China wouldn't cut her losses and run off.

If you see this whole thing in that terms then the relationship is mutually beneficial. And putting all the quid-pro-quos and the mutual strategic interests aside China has been very nice to us even at times when it might not be in her best interests to be. There's a lot of mutual trust and goodwill involved and certainly both countries feel that they rely upon each other to some extent. That whole "propaganda" about Pakistan-China friendship carries some truth in my opinion. So there's that whole another aspect of the partnership that you have to keep in mind when trying to understand Pakistan and China's military relations.
As for the applicability of loans for defense equipment, We have to look at it from a different lense.

Pakistan is home to huge chinese investments, future strategic and geopolitical importance and also happens to be the only high capable arch rival of China’s nearest enemy, India.

$4-$5bn loans or even higher are a good bargain for China to keep India in check as well as increase its influence in the Arabian sea/Indian ocean in the future.

Besides, PAF has been a good help for AVIC in the early days and their cooperation is beyond borders.

Don’t be misled, this is merely narrative management, largely hollow rhetoric and superficial posturing by what is essentially a proxy setup operating under the PML-N banner.
 

zyklon

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I guess I didn’t communicate my point properly. I am not saying that Pakistan is going to actively invade India or anything like that.

I didn't interpret you like that all, friend!

A few KJ-500s, 40 J-35s and some HQ-19s aren't going to be enough for Pakistan or anyone else to invade India.

What I meant is that Beijing is giving them the ability to take the fight into India instead of passively defending next time BJP tries to pull off this sort of nonsense.

Not to say Pakistan is free from sin, but Islamabad definitely stands to benefit from additional deterrence against New Delhi, especially if Beijing wants to discourage Indian misadventurism in Balochistan and elsewhere intended to threaten CPEC.

Basically by introducing generational gap in capabilities Pakistan has more options in the escalation ladder. Will it be subsidized by China? I guess it depends on how important Beijing takes the geopolitical situation in South Asia.

Sounds like neither of us are too sure if and to what extent Beijing might subsidize upcoming acquisitions of Chinese arms by Islamabad, but there might be no alternative but to up Pakistan's credit line, at a minimum, if such a qualitative edge is to be extended to a generation, and is to remain sustainable.

Not to denigrate our Pakistani friends: their military definitely punches above its weight, but ultimately Pakistan's population and economy is a fraction of that of India's, and deterrence requires resources.

Interesting article on the topic, as always take it with a huge grain of salt.

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A bit doubtful that Chinese officials, especially Chinese diplomats at the UN, would be genuinely bothered by General Bajwa glowing on The Beltway as the article claims.

The Pakistani military establishment has been milking DC since at least the 1980s when the US was arming the Haqqanis and their then allies, and then again from 2001 until 2021 when the the US was fighting the Haqqanis and their subsequent allies.

The Chinese should know that there isn't much that the current military leadership in Pakistan can do to actually win over DC when much of the current leadership at the Pentagon blames America's inelegant exit from Kabul in 2021 on Pakistani support for the Quetta Shura.

Probably supersonic cruise missiles.

Are you implying that Islamabad has asked or is asking Beijing to sell it the DF-100 or something along those lines to rival, if not exceed the Brahmos that New Delhi constantly touts?

I also think Pakistan lacks a proper conventional ballistic missile line as it focused a lot on the nuclear role specifically but it can probably just use the Shaheen series as a base to build a conventional line (essentially expand the Fatah series). Not sure how advanced the warheads are as there's very little information available online.

Pakistan should have the technology to build all sorts of reasonably capable conventional ballistic missiles, but the problem is going to be manufacturing enough of them. India's military doesn't exactly maintain a limited footprint.

I think it's most likely just Hopium and not real. China did call out South Korea on having THAAD and now China is doing it to India?

Are you sure that's comparable?

India launched dozens of cruise missiles at multiple Pakistani population centers less than a month ago, never mind their strikes against even more Pakistani military targets.

Perhaps some people would consider that kind of approximate to the "poop balloons" North Korea deployed against South Korea last year . . .


HQ19 is going to change nuclear balance in the region significantly, which is something I doubt China would do.

Pakistan is too big of a country with too small of a defense budget to be able to afford the HQ-19 at scale anytime soon.

If Beijing is willing to be kind, Pakistan might get a HQ-19 battery for Islamabad and Rawalpindi, maybe even a second battery for Karachi or somewhere else if Beijing is feeling especially generous.

However, that much HQ-19 coverage isn't going to fundamentally alter the nuclear balance between Pakistan and India.
 
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Observer1

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A bit doubtful that Chinese officials, especially Chinese diplomats at the UN, would be genuinely bothered by General Bajwa glowing on The Beltway as the article claims.

The Pakistani military establishment has been milking DC since at least the 1980s when the US was arming the Haqqanis and their then allies, and then again from 2001 until 2021 when the the US was fighting the Haqqanis and their subsequent allies.

The Chinese should know that there isn't much that the current military leadership in Pakistan can do to actually win over DC when much of the current leadership at the Pentagon blames America's inelegant exit from Kabul in 2021 on Pakistani support for the Quetta Shura.
I agree, the website is politically biased in that sense because it's associated with ex-PTI folks (the party which was removed by the military) so it will greatly exaggerate that aspect, but if you extract the raw information there are still some things to take away — bias aside.

Over here it claims "Though a classified internal Pakistani intelligence assessment judges China to be a more “natural strategic ally” than the U.S., with whom Pakistan is deemed to share limited interests..."

And despite allegedly being willing to provide a military naval base in Gwadar city (claimed in the article), you can notice later on that there is reluctance to fully go through with it partly because of potential backlash from the US in terms of sanctions and other means: "In return, Pakistan asked for a major upgrade in economic and military assistance from Beijing in order to insulate Islamabad from the fierce reaction from the U.S. such a deal is expected to provoke."

Are you implying that Islamabad has asked or is asking Beijing to sell it the DF-100 or something along those lines to rival, if not exceed the Brahmos that New Delhi constantly touts?
Not necessarily the DF-100 specifically, but something like that yeah. Maybe a YJ-12 derivative or YJ-18. Something land-optimised for deep strike.
 
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sf7pakistan

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Not necessarily the DF-100 specifically, but something like that yeah. Maybe a YJ-12 derivative or YJ-18. Something land-optimised for deep strike.
A land attack version of the YJ-18 for deep strikes would be awesome. I've been thinking about something like that since this whole incident.
 

zyklon

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Don’t be misled, this is merely narrative management, largely hollow rhetoric and superficial posturing by what is essentially a proxy setup operating under the PML-N banner.

Then what's the real narrative here?

Not looking to argue about or even interested in domestic Pakistani politics, but genuinely curious about how Pakistan funds certain Chinese defense imports.

I agree, the website is politically biased in that sense because it's associated with ex-PTI folks (the party which was removed by the military) so it will greatly exaggerate that aspect, but if you extract the raw information there are still some things to take away — bias aside.

Over here it claims "Though a classified internal Pakistani intelligence assessment judges China to be a more “natural strategic ally” than the U.S., with whom Pakistan is deemed to share limited interests..."

The article was reasonably well written and carried an air of legitimacy or at least professionalism, so wouldn't be surprised if the authors had some access to or familiarity with internal reporting from within the Pakistani gov't.

Disinformation intended to mislead somewhat more sophisticated, or at least relatively educated audiences are usually embedded within or at least delivered with uncontroversial slivers of truths.

Not necessarily the DF-100 specifically, but something like that yeah. Maybe a YJ-12 derivative or YJ-18. Something land-optimised for deep strike.

A land attack version of the YJ-18 for deep strikes would be awesome. I've been thinking about something like that since this whole incident.

Doesn't Pakistan already operate the YJ-12?

The YJ-18 is subsonic until the terminal phase, and optimized against moving targets, specifically ships.

What do you guys consider "deep strikes" and what kind of Indian targets would such a "deep strike" capability be intended to degrade or destroy?
 

00CuriousObserver

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What’s the likelihood that the HQ-19 sale is somehow related to Iran? Perhaps we should look at this from the other direction

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Black Wolf

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Then what's the real narrative here?

Not looking to argue about or even interested in domestic Pakistani politics, but genuinely curious about how Pakistan funds certain Chinese defense imports.


Please refer to my post in the J10 thread, post #8032/43 for a clearer understanding of the fiscal sources and budget-related matters.



 

sf7pakistan

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Doesn't Pakistan already operate the YJ-12?

The YJ-18 is subsonic until the terminal phase, and optimized against moving targets, specifically ships.

What do you guys consider "deep strikes" and what kind of Indian targets would such a "deep strike" capability be intended to degrade or destroy?

This was just a "what if" from me. Pakistan does operate the YJ-12 but only the Pakistan Navy has it. At least in my understanding, ground launched versions of these missiles can serve as analogues to India's Brahmos. A missile coming in at M 3-4ish would be a challenge to shoot down and a missile hugging the terrain, popping up and yeeting itself it M 3.0 would be an even more difficult target to counter.

In my mind I was thinking of using them at major Indian installations such as their S400s, air bases, naval bases, C2 targets, HQs, oil depots, power plants and such. Key strategic targets for which we do not need to send our boys in on jets. A few concentrated volleys of these and hopefully Pakistan has a better shot at operating jets inside India.

I felt that we were found to be quite lacking in our deep strike capability within India. The damage they did to our bases, while not crippling was still representative of the things that they could do. YJ-12 and YJ-18 could give Pakistan capability to inflict damage deep within India at same if not better scale.
 
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