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Date Posted: 03-Oct-2008
Jane's Defence Weekly
Army faces major equipment shortfall, claims senior Pakistani official
Farhan Bokhari JDW Correspondent - Islamabad
Only around USD500 million of the funds given to Pakistan by the United States have been spent on hardware for the army, a senior Pakistani security official has claimed, even though Washington has poured up to USD10 billion in military aid into the country since 2003.
The official, speaking at a briefing in Islamabad on 29 September, said that Pakistan's frontline field commanders deployed along the border with Afghanistan were still using Korean War-era binoculars, citing this as just one example of the poor equipment used by troops fighting the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
Explaining details of the payments made to Pakistan, the security official, who asked not to be named, said the US had actually made payments of about USD6.5 billion for Islamabad's war effort rather than the USD10 billion figure commonly quoted.
However, this included payments for items such as building roads to Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), where the Pakistani military deployed for the first time ever in 2003.
Western defence analysts in Islamabad said the revelation, if true, raised serious questions - also being asked in Washington - about the ways in which US funding was being spent and whether the Pakistani military was being properly equipped to deal with the challenge that it faced.
"The bottom line must be if the individual soldiers gained from the hardware they got and if the resources were of direct benefit to their operational engagements," said one Western defence official, who spoke to Jane's on condition of anonymity. "It was necessary to make roads and do a whole lot of things, but if individual soldiers and individual units are still in need, then there must have been a gap in the way the US equipped the Pakistani military for the actual job."
© 2008 Jane's Information Group
Jane's Login
Date Posted: 03-Oct-2008
Jane's Defence Weekly
Army faces major equipment shortfall, claims senior Pakistani official
Farhan Bokhari JDW Correspondent - Islamabad
Only around USD500 million of the funds given to Pakistan by the United States have been spent on hardware for the army, a senior Pakistani security official has claimed, even though Washington has poured up to USD10 billion in military aid into the country since 2003.
The official, speaking at a briefing in Islamabad on 29 September, said that Pakistan's frontline field commanders deployed along the border with Afghanistan were still using Korean War-era binoculars, citing this as just one example of the poor equipment used by troops fighting the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
Explaining details of the payments made to Pakistan, the security official, who asked not to be named, said the US had actually made payments of about USD6.5 billion for Islamabad's war effort rather than the USD10 billion figure commonly quoted.
However, this included payments for items such as building roads to Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), where the Pakistani military deployed for the first time ever in 2003.
Western defence analysts in Islamabad said the revelation, if true, raised serious questions - also being asked in Washington - about the ways in which US funding was being spent and whether the Pakistani military was being properly equipped to deal with the challenge that it faced.
"The bottom line must be if the individual soldiers gained from the hardware they got and if the resources were of direct benefit to their operational engagements," said one Western defence official, who spoke to Jane's on condition of anonymity. "It was necessary to make roads and do a whole lot of things, but if individual soldiers and individual units are still in need, then there must have been a gap in the way the US equipped the Pakistani military for the actual job."
© 2008 Jane's Information Group
Jane's Login
