KARACHI: Pakistan
is secretly racing to develop its own armed drones but is struggling in
its initial tests with a lack of precision munitions and advanced
targeting technology, the Associated Press (AP) reported on Sunday.
It was reported that China has offered
to help by selling drones it has developed to the country. But industry
experts said there is still uncertainty about the capabilities of the
Chinese aircraft.
Federal Minister for Defence Syed Naveed
Qamar had said that Pakistan’s own drone technology is at its initial
stage and has been used only for air surveillance.
In a chat with media during his visit to
International Defence Exhibition and Seminar IDEAS-2012 Pakistan in
Karachi, the defence minister had said that these drones do not have the
capacity to carry arms, yet.
Pakistan has demanded the US to provide
it with armed drones, claiming it could more effectively carry out
attacks against militants. Washington has refused because of the
sensitive nature of the technology and doubts that Pakistan would
reliably target US enemies.
Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf had
indicated, during the Ideas 2012, that Islamabad would look for help
from Beijing in response to US intransigence, the AP report said.
“Pakistan can also benefit from China in defense collaboration, offsetting the undeclared technological apartheid,” said Ashraf.
Whereas, Pakistan has also been working
to develop armed drones on its own, said military officials and
civilians involved in the domestic drone industry, all of whom spoke on
condition of anonymity because of the classified nature of the work.