Defence News

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Offer of obsolete UAVs fails to impress Pakistan

Saturday, January 23, 2010
By Mariana Baabar

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan military sources say they are not impressed by the offer of the United States to supply RQ-7 Shadow Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), as they already have superior quality UAVs, which they have upgraded, and which are in use.

The disappointment is understandable since unlike the drones that fly and take out targets inside Pakistan’s Fata region, the ones being offered to Pakistan are unarmed and commonly used for intelligence gathering.

Later, when DG ISPR Major General Athar Abbas was asked about the overall weapons being provided to Pakistan for counterinsurgency and other military supplies, he remarked, “Too little, too late”.

It was US Defence Secretary Robert Gates who, in a meeting with the media at the residence of the US ambassador, said the US was enhancing Pakistan’s intelligence capabilities. He said the offer comes because Islamabad had requested for them. “We have a lot of information on the Afghan side that we share ... we also help Pakistan build its own capacity. We will be providing them with UAVs (Shadow) together with equipment and training,” he said.

To a question whether the US was attaching any conditions to these UAVs, he replied, “I do not know”. In the past, the US was wary of passing on the drone technology to Pakistan as Islamabad could use it in areas other than it had specifically been given for.

One American journalist accompanying him asked about the possibility of stopping arms sale to India and Pakistan altogether. “We have to judge each country’s requirement on its own. We sell Pakistan F-16s and we sell India transport aircraft. We make a decision judiciously,” Gates replied.

Gates appeared relaxed with the questions being thrown at him by the local and US media but it was the ‘D’ word that he refused to entertain. Though several questions relating to US drones were asked, he shrugged them off and would not even give an answer as to whom in the US this question could be put.

When he said that there were no US bases inside Pakistan. he refused a reply when asked from where these US drones flew. Amongst the defence secretary’s aides in uniform that greeted the media before he arrived were those who offered their greetings in chaste Urdu and one of them also spoke excellent Pashto!

As if on cue, the Pakistan military’s announcement that it could not overstretch itself in fresh areas of operation also saw Gates admitting to a query that a ‘trust deficit’ existed. “There is responsibility on both sides. From the US side, we turned away from Afghanistan in 1989. We could have remained engaged but we did not even try. Then the Pressler Amendment brought an end to military-to-military conversation for 12 years when we had no contacts. We cannot rebuild trust through rhetoric,” he said.

Turning to the present moment, Gates said that the US was deeply impressed with Pakistan’s military operations and the level of activity and clearing of areas. “Very impressive. Pakistan is a sovereign state and makes its own decisions on future operations. The past year has been extraordinary. Let me put it this way. If we are in a car together, it is Pakistan in the driving seat with its foot on the accelerator. We are prepared to help and also express our condolences to the 3,000 Pakistani soldiers killed. General Kayani gave me a detailed briefing,” explained the defence secretary.

To a query about the Coalition Support Fund that has been held up and which Pakistan needs on an emergency basis, Gates replied, “It will come and we are also reviving $500 million deferred payment.”

He explained instances in the past where Pakistan’s procedures lacked proper documentation. “We are working with Pakistan on the documentation and will give it to Congress. We are working on it now and some people we are seeking to add to the US Embassy will help,” he said.

When a question of opening up dialogue with the Taliban inside Afghanistan was put to him, he replied, “Afghanistan has its own reconciliation and reintegration plan. It is how low-level Taliban can work in their own community. These are Taliban foot soldiers who work for money. As economic development proceeds and there is greater security, more and more foot soldiers will come back,” he pointed out. But he did not agree that there were any chances of the Taliban forming the next government in Kabul. However, he did say that there were conditions if they wanted a future political role.

“If the adversaries are willing to become part of the political fabric of Afghanistan and they are prepared to play a legitimate role, abide by the Constitution and recognise the Kabul government. What do the Taliban make of Afghanistan? It was a desert (during their last government). “Are they ready to rebuild?”

To several queries regarding the role of India in the region, Gates said that the last thing he wanted to avoid was another Mumbai-like attack. “We all have common enemies and in the past year they tried to destabilise Pakistan itself. We have regional problems that need regional cooperation,” he said.

He said the US was ready to play a constructive role between India and Pakistan and was well prepared. “In 1990 then President Bush sent me to the region and we made suggestions. Both parties do not want intervention and we are comfortable with that,” he said.

When told that with Kashmir unresolved, now more issues, like India’s role in Afghanistan, were leading to confrontation, Gates replied, “Al-Qaeda does not care about Kashmir. Kashmir is an issue for both sides.”

He said he was unaware that at the forthcoming London conference, a formal role would be offered to India. But he acknowledged that India had significant development programmes. Calling al-Qaeda a cancer, Gates did not mince his words when he said: “They are all bad”. Refusing to distinguish between the Pakistani Taliban, Afghan Taliban, al-Qaeda, Haqqani network and the various Lashkars, he said it would be a mistake to look at them individually.

 

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NCA meeting headed by PM

SLAMABAD: The National Command Authority (NCA) has said that Pakistan will not accept any discrimination over nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.

The NCA took serious note of recent statement by the Indian army chief. It said such irresponsible statements reflected a hegemonic mindset, oblivious of dangerous implications of adventurism in a nuclearized context.

The NCA met under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani to review matters of strategic importance to Pakistan.

This was the first NCA meeting which was chaired by democratically elected Prime Minister of Pakistan.

The NCA expressed satisfaction on the safety and security of Pakistan’s strategic assets and the effectiveness of Pakistan’s strategic deterrence. It emphasized the importance of Pakistan’s policy of credible minimum deterrence and the maintaining of strategic stability in South Asia.

It also reaffirmed Pakistan’s policy of restraint and responsibility and its resolve to continue efforts to promote peace and stability in South Asia. It underscored the need for prevention of conflict and avoidance of nuclear and conventional arms race in the region.

The NCA took note of the developments detrimental to the objectives of strategic stability in the region.

It observed that instead of responding positively to Pakistan’s proposal for a Strategic Restraint Regime in South Asia, India continues to pursue an ambitious militarization programme and offensive military doctrines.

Massive inductions of advanced weapon systems, including installation of ABMs, build-up of nuclear arsenal and delivery systems through ongoing and new programmes, assisted by some external quarters, offensive doctrines like ‘Cold Start’ and similar accumulations in the conventional realm, tend to destabilize the regional balance.

This relentless pursuit of military preponderance will have severe consequences for peace and security in South Asia as well as for the Indian Ocean region. Pakistan cannot be oblivious to these developments, it added.

The NCA further noted that the India-specific exemption made by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and subsequent nuclear fuel supply agreements with several countries, would enable India to produce substantial quantities of fissile material for nuclear weapons by freeing up its domestic resources.

The NCA reiterated that, while continuing to act with responsibility and avoiding an arms race, Pakistan will not compromise on its security interests and the imperative of maintaining a credible minimum deterrence.

 

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NCA describes Indian statements as reflection of 'hegemonic mindset'

Wednesday, 13 Jan, 2010 6:52 pm
ISLAMABAD : The National Command Authority (NCA) on Wednesday took a serious view of recent Indian statements to conduct conventional military strikes under a nuclear umbrella, saying these reflected a 'hegemonic mindset'.

”Vowing not to compromise on its security interests the NCA said “such irresponsible statements reflected a hegemonic mindset, oblivious of dangerous implications of adventurism in a nuclearized context.”

The National Command Authority (NCA) that met here to review matters of strategic importance to Pakistan was the first, chaired by Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani since he assumed command of the authority President Asif Ali Zardari divested himself of the powers of Chairman National Command Authority on Dec 27 and transferred the powers of Chairman to the Prime Minister, through repromulgation and amendment of the National Command Authority Ordinance, 2009.

The NCA noted the India-specific exemption made by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and subsequent nuclear fuel supply agreements with several countries saying it would enable India to produce substantial quantities of fissile material for nuclear weapons by freeing up its domestic resources, a statement issued after the meeting said.

“While continuing to act with responsibility and avoiding an arms race, Pakistan will not compromise on its security interests, the imperative of maintaining a credible minimum deterrence, the NCA reiterated.

The authority expressed satisfaction on the safety and security of Pakistan’s strategic assets and the effectiveness of the country’s strategic deterrence.

The NCA reaffirmed Pakistan’s policy of restraint and responsibility and its resolve to continue efforts to promote peace and stability in South Asia. It underscored the need for prevention of conflict and avoidance of nuclear and conventional arms race in the region.

The NCA took note of the developments detrimental to the objectives of strategic stability in the region. It observed that instead of responding positively to Pakistan’s proposal for a Strategic Restraint Regime in South Asia, India continues to pursue an ambitious militarization programme and offensive military doctrines.

The meeting reviewed plans for civil nuclear power generation under IAEA safeguards as part of national energy security strategy to ensure sustained economic growth.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2010

 

[Pari]

Pakistan Rejects Atom Bomb Material Cut - Off Talks

By REUTERS
Published: January 25, 2010
Filed at 1:08 p.m. ET


GENEVA (Reuters) - Pakistan, citing a "clear and present danger" from its nuclear-armed rival India, ruled out on Monday global negotiations to ban the future production of material to make atomic bombs.

Confirming a Reuters report from January 22, Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Zamir Akram, said such a treaty would leave Pakistan -- the most recent member of the nuclear club -- at a permanent disadvantage.

Pakistan's stance, triggered by nuclear and arms deals between India and the United States as well as with other nuclear powers, is a blow to the Obama administration's efforts to revive global disarmament.

It also raises a stumbling block to the U.N.-sponsored Conference on Disarmament, where members had proposed starting work on talks to halt production of the highly enriched uranium and plutonium used to make nuclear weapons in what would be known as a fissile material cut-off treaty (FMCT).

"A fissile material cut-off treaty that only bans future production of fissile material is unacceptable to Pakistan," Akram told reporters. "It would only accentuate the disparity and imbalance that exists and that simply is not acceptable."

DISAPPOINTED OPTIMISM

Akram said Pakistan was willing to negotiate a fissile treaty that encompassed reductions of existing stocks of material.

It also was ready to discuss other areas proposed at the 65-member conference: nuclear disarmament, limiting the militarisation of outer space, and "negative security assurances" -- promises by nuclear powers not to use atomic weapons on non-nuclear states.

The conference broke a 12-year deadlock last May when all members, including Pakistan, agreed on a programme of work, including talks on a fissile treaty.

But Pakistan subsequently refused to allow the talks to start.

Akram said Islamabad's initial optimism about the Obama administration's disarmament intentions, which had led it to back the conference programme, had quickly evaporated.

Other countries were selling India weapons, he said, and under the terms of a civilian nuclear agreement Washington signed with India in 2005, India was negotiating deals with the U.S. and elsewhere to acquire nuclear technology and material.

Akram neither disputed nor confirmed estimates that India already has twice as many nuclear weapons as Pakistan.

A civilian deal signed with France would provide India with fissile material for its reactors for 60 years, allowing it to use its own stocks for weapons, he said.

India's nuclear and other arms plans were complicating the environment for disarmament talks, he said, saying it was unclear why the United States was helping India build up its nuclear potential.

"But for us it presents us with a clear and present danger arising out of the asymmetry in strategic capabilities in South Asia," he said.

Pakistan would not block the conference but needed more than vague promises that the talks could also cover fissile stocks.

"I want to be clear before we start negotiations what are we talking about," he said.

But Akram said he did not believe states with nuclear weapons would agree to include stocks in the negotiations.

And he condemned nuclear powers for signing civilian deals with India that undermine the nuclear non-proliferation regime.

"Their motivation is greed.. They want to make money. But for us it's life and death," he said

 

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Gates Reaches Out to Future Pakistani Military Leaders

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Jan. 22, 2010 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates took his message of shared challenge and commitment today to Pakistan’s rising military leaders attending the prestigious Pakistan National Defense University.

“The main reason I’m here today is to have a conversation – to hear your thoughts and to answer any questions you may have about us – about our goals and future plans concerning this region,” Gates said in opening his remarks.

Gates noted the far-ranging strategic relationship between the United States and Pakistan, but focused his remarks on the two countries’ military relationship – one he conceded the United States mistakenly cut off in the early 1990s due to short-sighted U.S. legislative and policy decisions.

“Perhaps the greatest consequence of these choices was the severing of military-to-military relations,” he said.

The result, he said, was a “very real and very understandable trust deficit – one that has made it more difficult for us to work together to confront a common threat of extremism.”

The United States is ready to invest “whatever time and energy is takes” to change that, he said, and forge a genuine, lasting partnership with Pakistan.

Rebuilding relationships with this current generation of Pakistani officers will take years rather than months, he said, and require openness, transparency and continuous engagement on both sides.

“You cannot rebuild trust through a speech or rhetoric,” but rather, through actions, Gates told Pakistani print journalists earlier today.

The two militaries have a lot to learn from each other, Gates told the officers. They’re already starting these lessons, through expanded joint training exercises, and operationally, as they cooperatively deal with extremism along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.

The troop surge in Afghanistan is intended to put more pressure on the Taliban and reverse what Gates conceded is a “deteriorating security situation” there. He acknowledged concern within Pakistan that the increased U.S. presence will lead to more attacks there.

But confronting the terrorist syndicate that threatens the region requires pressuring all the associated groups on both sides of the border.

“We have a regional problem here,” Gates told Pakistani reporters earlier today. “It is going to take a regional level of cooperation to deal with it.”

This reality, he told the military officers, will require Pakistan’s military to do even more in the coming years.

“As uniformed leaders, you will be responsible for preparing the military for the future,” he told the officers, sharing some of the lessons the U.S. military has learned about reshaping and reforming itself to meet new and evolving threats.

Just as the U.S. military transformed to face these new challenges, rather than fight a conventional conflict, Gates said Pakistan’s will have to change, too, to ensure it has the proper skill sets and equipment to fight along the Afghan border and in the tribal areas.

“As the future leaders of the military, you have a tremendous responsibility – to your fellow troops, and most important, to all your countrymen,” he challenged the officers.

The United States is committed to doing all it can to assist this process through a variety of means, as Pakistan desires, he said throughout his two days of sessions here.

“We are in this car together, but the Pakistanis are in the driver’s seat and have their foot on the accelerator,” he told Pakistani print journalists today. “And that is fine with me.”

One important way to share capabilities is through solid military-to-military ties, Gates said.

These will strengthen the other elements of the two countries’ broad strategic relationship, he said, providing a foundation on which to “renew, reinforce and strengthen the bonds of trust between our people and our nations.”

After presenting his prepared remarks, Gates dismissed the media from the room so he and the Pakistani officers could have an open exchange.
Their questions ran the gamut, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters after the session.

One officer asked Gates to explain his statement earlier this week in New Delhi, where he said India demonstrated “great restraint and statesmanship” following the 2008 Mumbai bombings, but could be hard-pressed not to react more strongly – even violently-- if a similar incident occurred again.

Another asked Gates if the United States would be willing to intervene to relieve long-simmering Indian-Pakistani tensions – something Gates said both countries have expressed they’d rather deal with themselves.

Several of the questions concerned Afghanistan – from Gates’ thoughts about reconciliation with the Taliban, to how to grow and sustain the Afghan national army despite lack of Afghan resources to support the effort.

One of the more provocative participants challenged Gates about the difficulties “the American war” in Afghanistan has put on Pakistan. “The tone of it was, … ‘We are in this mess because of you,’” Morrell said.

Gates “took great exception” to the comment, telling the officer problems created by the Taliban government in Afghanistan, as well as al Qaida and its affiliates, were going to impact Pakistan.

“It was only a matter of time before they were dragged into it as well, because al Qaida had designs on a caliphate” that inevitably included Pakistan, Morrell said. “The notion that you could be immune from them – that grand plan – is not realistic,” he said.

Morrell characterized the session as “very cordial and respectful,” but also “very candid,” with “no-holds-barred questions and answers.”

These, he said, are the kind of engagements Gates seeks out to promote clearer communication and understanding about the United States and its intentions.

“This is all part of his effort to sort of dispel myths, debunk conspiracy theories, puncture rumors and try to be as open and honest as he can be in hopes of trying to get through some of the nonsense,” Gates said. “And I think it’s appreciated.”

Gates was particularly looking forward to his National Defense University visit during his Pakistan visit, Morrell told reporters before leaving Washington.

Pakistani Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani received military education at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. However, as Gates noted during his NDU address, most of the Pakistani forces he leads have had little or no personal interaction with the U.S. military.

 

[Pari]

DATE:25/01/10
SOURCE:Flight International
SINGAPORE 2010: Asian fighter requirements continue to grow
By Siva Govindasamy


The Asia-Pacific fighters market will continue to be the world's most active over the next decade, with the countries likely to buy more than 500 aircraft to supplement existing fleets, embark on upgrades and acquire new capabilities to take them into the next stage of their development.


China is becoming more active. Beijing has exported fighters for several decades - most notably the Chengdu F-7 interceptor and Nanchang A-5 ground attack aircraft to the likes of Bangladesh, Myanmar, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. But it has newer-generation fighters and it is now casting its net wider.


Beijing has held talks with several countries on the Chengdu FC-1, also known as the JF-17 in the export variant that was developed with Pakistan, and the light attack variant of the Hongdu L-15 advanced jet trainer. For JF-17 customers, China could set up an assembly line or produce components for the aircraft, just like some Western suppliers. This includes traditional and non-traditional clients, say officials.



"We are talking to about five to six countries for each aircraft, and air force pilots from some of them have already flown test flights," says Ma Zhiping, president of China National Aero-Technology Import & Export Corporation, which markets China-made military aviation products globally.


"We provide very capable aircraft at a very reasonable price compared to what else there is in the market. One of the biggest problems for many of our customers is financing. Many are developing countries and their payment abilities are limited. We work with the Chinese government in these cases to help them get cheap credit."
Exports of the Chengdu J-10 fighter are possible, but Beijing's priority is to develop an upgraded version of the aircraft. "This will take a bit of time and we are confident we will have a very good fourth-generation fighter when this is completed. Then, we could export the J-10 to our friends," says Wang Yawei, president of AVIC Defence, the military arm of state-owned aircraft manufacturer China Aviation Industry (AVIC).


Pakistan, with one eye on its rival, has begun indigenous production of the Chengdu JF-17 that Pakistan Aeronautical Complex helped to design. It also began to receive its newer batch of F-16s last year. In a few years, Islamabad is likely to ask Washington for more F-16s and attempt to buy a batch of the Chengdu J-10, China's latest fighter.