Search results

The Global 6000-based Swordfish has much less payload (e.g. the P-8 has more external hardpoints and an internal bomb bay), but the Swordfish can stay on station for a longer period of time.

It'd be a dark horse candidate at best. But I expect both Japan and China will be uneasy, e.g. a Japanese MPA operating with Chinese submarines, and Chinese submarines operating with a Japanese MPA. They could replace each of the P1's sensors with COTS solutions (like the ones used on the...

The Swordfish is a COTS-driven solution. The radar, EO/IR and MAD are all from third-party sources (with whom Pakistan is already dealing with via the ATR-72 MPA). The aircraft is from Canada's Bombardier. Basically, the only things Saab can withhold are its CMS, AShM and ASW torpedoes (all of...

The one thing they had going with the AH-1Z/T129 combo was that the AH-1Z was heavier than the T129 (8+ ton vs. 5+ ton). So without the AH-1Z, that 'heavyweight' aspect is not there, which might (or might not) leave room for an alternative, if possible. @Oscar Piloting a Mi-28NE deal with Russia...

I wonder if the Kamra team's inspired by the Airbus FCAS? @Oscar @messiach

The T129 should excel in high-altitude environments, but if the Army is serious about building a serious CAS element through attack helicopters, they'll need a more affordable platform. Unlike most other non-US platforms, the Z-10 benefits from the PLA's scale (distributing the R&D overhead)...

Why Tesla? There are other companies developing electric cars, but more importantly, the engineers can be had if the incentive, vision, planning and execution strategy is given. I think it's possible to scale the development of a low cost electric car, though it'll take a couple of car...

Agreed. Pakistan has a middle class minority, but because of the overall size of the population, it has a comparatively large middle class (e.g. 25 m people?). So it's difficult to ignore their needs, especially if they can impact the elections. The best way is to find overlapping interests...

The irony of the situation is that the federal gov't has to plead to the Sindh gov't to do something, as though Sindh is a separate state. It'd be best to reorganize the country along unitary lines into municipal districts -- each with a nazim and a federal MP (no quota system). The only...

Indeed. Moreover, a lot of this PDSP funding appears to be for infrastructure, not targeted investments in fostering high-value industry growth. If I could I'd trim spending from $5 bn to $1 bn if it means spending 80% of the total budget on STEM, bringing a turn-key solution that'll help...

That's true to an extent, but hammering the local market with imports and killing the incentive to produce domestic alternatives is not the solution either. I agree, there are severe rent-seeking and shady issues with our companies, but you're not going to encourage the growth of positive...

Believe me, Asad Umar -- while no economist -- is certainly above the PDF average.

The F-16A/B is heavier than the Mirage 3/5 -- i.e. MTOW of 17,000 kg vs. 14,000 kg. Through the 1970s the PAF had basically used the Mirage 3/5 as a dual air-to-air and air-to-ground fighter. The "strike role" aspect began to matter in the early 1980s via the induction of the Mirage 5PA3, i.e...

Sometimes, the OEM must also be forthright. In the late 1980s, the PAF was just broadly toying with the idea of a new lightweight fighter, but it never kicked-off in earnest until Chengdu and Northrop approached it with the Sabre II. Once the Sabre II collapsed and a few years passed, Chengdu...

In contrast to BBC, CNN or Al Jazeera, the media in Pakistan are not staffed by genuine journalists (there are a few of course, but few and far between), but commentators and news anchors. In terms of macroeconomics and public policy, there's no one of repute I can name who has asked the right...

To work with the Chinese, one's own negotiators must be sincere, competent and innovative (so as to offset or manage China's expectations). Seeing how not one of those attributes were present in the previous government when it had signed-off on CPEC, the results shouldn't surprise us. But our...

tbh ... whatever Zarvan looks at, it's not happening. Not even a hard signature will protect a deal from this fate (see what's going to the T129 deal). If it's been Zarvan'ed, it's gone.

IMO ... I think IK/PTI's intention is to demonstrate a sense of self-dignity, i.e. a trait Pakistan's previous leaders didn't show a lot of when the leader of a richer country would call. Granted, this specific case might have been misapplied; then again, how would you receive a gov't that...

tbh I don't think my dad hung out with many ex-PAF pilots in Qatar, mostly engineers and some technicians. But he is friends with a very senior ex-PAF C-130 pilot, I think almost all PAF people in Qatar know of the C-130 officer. It's as if he's been with the QEAF from the day the QEAF was founded!

This may not be entirely applicable today; the PAF has reportedly changed the KE's radar to a different AESA model (away from the ZDK03 PESA). @messiach CETC also has a ZDK06 AESA platform.