Pakistan seeks new weaponry to 'neutralise' India
Indo-Asian News Service

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has sought over-the-horizon missiles and combat jets to counter what it terms the threat posed by India's acquisition of new and sophisticated armaments, the air chief has said.

Air Chief Marshal Kaleem Saadat told Jane's Defence Weekly that Pakistan had been forced to upgrade its weaponry due to "the balance of power tilting dangerously in India's favour".

He also indicated that Pakistan would turn to China, which has played a major role in Pakistan's ballistic missile programme, if the U.S. blocked arms sales from the West.

Saadat did not mention any specific arms purchases by India. According to him, the top priority for Pakistan was the acquisition of beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles (Bvraams).

Pakistan would prefer to buy the missiles from the U.S. or Western Europe, but since "that option is not yet open, I guess ultimately it will have to be the Chinese".

Pakistan and China have been jointly developing the SD-10 Bvraam missile that would be ready for operational use "in less than a year", Saadat said.

The missiles would be mounted on the existing fleet of fighter jets but the Pakistan Air Force was also looking for new aircraft, he added.

The purchase of new fighter jets with "F-16 and above capability" was another primary need, the air chief said.

Pakistan is negotiating with the U.S. Belgium and the United Arab Emirates to acquire the planes.

Pakistan had contracted with the U.N. in the 1980s to buy 32 F-16 fighters but Washington halted their delivery after Islamabad refused to roll back its nuclear programme.

U.S. President George Bush, in announcing a $3 billion economic package for Pakistan during the visit of President Pervez Musharraf, had specifically said the F-16's were not part of the deal.

Pakistan is thus looking at other countries for purchasing used F-16s from other countries but this would have to be first approved by the U.S.

Pakistan was also been interested in buying used Mirage 2000-5s from Qatar, but Saadat said that since India was also keen on the same aircraft, it "is (now) too complex a deal, so perhaps it would not be easy to complete".

Pakistan is seeking less sophisticated aircraft to replace its aging fleet of A-5s, F-7s and Mirages within five to seven years, the air chief said.