Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts Issue No. 37 October 28 - November 3, 2001 Quezon City, Philippines |
Pakistan Seeks US Weapons for Anti-Terror Partnership BY
MOHAMMED AHMEDULLAH
Back to Bulatlat.com Alternative Reader Index 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 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 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. Back to Bulatlat.com Alternative Reader Index We want to know what you think of this article.
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