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Pakistan Seeks US Weapons for Anti-Terror Partnership

BY MOHAMMED AHMEDULLAH
Defense Week (October 22, 2001)

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NEW DELHI-As a reward for supporting Washington's war against terrorism, Pakistan is seeking an assortment of sophisticated U.S. weapons to help it achieve military parity with rival India, according to analysts and press reports.

F-16s, a variety of missiles, artillery systems, and unmanned aircraft are at the top of Pakistan's wish list, which is already fanning fear of a new arms race between the South Asian neighbors, who have fought three wars in the last 50 years and successfully tested nuclear weapons in 1998.

"Islamabad is understood to have placed an exhaustive wish list before the U.S. when it agreed to extend support for the international coalition," said Rafiq Namazi, a researcher at the Pakistan Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad.

Weapons for peace?

Namazi said that with the Bush administration's lifting of sanctions against Pakistan, there is nothing in the way of Islamabad acquiring the latest in conventional weapons to modernize its forces. Pakistan wants to buy the weapons with the help of a U.S. aid program that helps allies like Egypt and Israel.

Pakistan and India had been under economic sanctions since May 1998 as punishment for testing nuclear weapons. The sanctions were lifted in September as the United States sought the support of each country in its fight against the Taliban militia in Afghanistan and the Al Qaeda terrorist network which it is sheltering.

Analysts said Pakistan is also arguing that the new weapons would stabilize relations between the two countries by helping a weaker Pakistan achieve conventional military parity with India.

"India shot down a Pakistani reconnaissance plane near its border with Pakistan in 1999, its fighter planes regularly entered Pakistani airspace during the Kargil conflict that same year, and artillery and mortar firings by its army are a regular feature in Kashmir," said Namazi. Kashmir is a mostly Muslim province in northwestern India where militants
have been waging a guerilla war against Indian rule.
"New Delhi will be more re-strained if Pakistan has conventional weapons matching to that of India," he said.

The Frontier Post, a daily newspaper in Pakistan, reported on Oct. 15 that the administration of Pakistani leader Gen. Pervez Musharraf was planning to give the United States a list of weapons to "maintain strategic balance" with India.

Wish list

The newspaper said the list included the latest version of the F-16 and spare parts for older models, antiship and antiaircraft missiles, artillery, multiple rocket launching systems and tactical unmanned aerial vehicles. In the article, an unnamed Pakistani defense ministry source was quoted as saying: "We want the kind of relationship the U.S. has with Egypt in terms of weapons sales. We have been telling the U.S. that a military balance with India is the best way to avert war in the Subcontinent."

Pakistan is heavily outgunned by India, which fields the latest Russian military hardware, including Su-30 fighters, T-90 tanks, advanced artillery systems, cruise missiles, ships and submarines. Under licensing agreements, India is able to manufacture many Russian weapons domestically.

Also, recent deals with Israel - which has cooperated with Russia on some weapons systems-have given New Delhi upgrade packages for surveillance technology and ship-to-surface precision-guided missiles.

In comparison, Islamabad's top fighter jet is the F-16A, which dates from the 1970s, most of which are not battle worthy for want of spares and munitions. Other Pakistani fighters include refurbished Dassault Mirage IIIs bought from France in 2000. Its tank fleet is composed of T-80 Soviet-era tanks bought from Ukraine, and its artillery is composed
largely of 1970s vintage 155mm guns of French origin.

The possibility that Pakistan could modernize its arsenal worries analysts in India. "If Pakistan is able to convince the U.S. to sell it the latest weapons, then it will start a new arms race with India," said Bidanda Chengappa, a researcher at New Delhi's Institute of Defense Studies and Analysis.

India's edge

India already has access to Russian, Israeli and French weaponry, and, now that sanctions have been lifted, even U.S. companies are willing to sell to India, Chengappa said. New Delhi will always retain an edge over Pakistan in conventional weapons, he said, because its more extensive borders-including one with China-dictate it maintain a larger, richer arsenal. Furthermore, it has more resources to buy weapons and has a coherent modernization program. Even with sufficient resources, Chengappa said, Pakistan would need from five to 10 years to catch up with its neighbor.

Namazi agreed, noting that to more quickly close the gap, Pakistan should resort to "smart acquisition," buying the best weaponry in smaller numbers rather than trying to match India weapon-for-weapon.

On the nuclear front, a sort of parity is believed to exist between India and Pakistan, although neither country has made public its nuclear weapon and missile inventory. In recent exchanges of hot words over Kashmir, neither Islamabad nor New Delhi has rattled their nuclear sabers.

Namazi said if Pakistan could match air assets with India then much of the parity issue would be solved.

"For this, Islamabad needs F-15s or F-16s with the latest complement of missiles, and electronic warfare systems, [and] cruise missiles and attack helicopters," he said.

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