Can Pakistan make its own attack helicopter or not?

[Abdullah Rahat]

Yes or no

 

[!eon]

no

 

[war&peace]

Can Pakistan make its own helicopter? - yes of course it can
But it is not doing so currently. But there is nothing in the world that Pakistan cannot make all it needs approval from the top and some time.

 

[HttpError]

No!

 

[ParachinarTorkham]

in 10 years yes.
. with design, investment, manufacturing being done by China and a superb painting job done by paf.

 

[Talwar e Pakistan]

Yes it can, but that's not the priority. It would take money and time, Pakistan has other things to focus on in the defense-related field.

 

[Darth Vader]

Yes and No
But its cheaper to buy from china and other countries

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

No we don't have the will power for it

We are ok to waste 2 billion on 12 Super Cobra vs setting up a Helicopter facility with same funding where we can engineer any Helicopter based on our need

Issue has been there since 1980's

Just like how we accepted the delusional agreement on our F16 what we can or can't do with the items

If our JF17 program cost us 500 million , you can imagine what we could have done with 2 Billion investment in local Indegnious effort may be for 100 million to 200 million to make our own Gunship

 

[niaz]

To answer this question truthfully, one has to first analyse what are the main components of an attack helicopter and then see if we can make the same.

An attack helicopter is merely a standard helicopter in the role of a flying armoured vehicle with a good deal of firepower and reach. A US general reported to have said that a squadron of gunships is roughly equal to an armoured brigade.

An attack helo should therefore have a fuselage capable of absorbing hits from small arms, a reliable and powerful power plant & drive train, robust rotors capable of giving it high speed, a good radar & combat avionics.

Let us assume that one can buy radar & avionics from abroad. Can we really make 12.5 mm resistant fuselage, rotor blades, drive train & power plant in Pakistan? The answer is ‘No’

India has been manufacturing helicopters since the 1980s with the Dhruv (Light utility) entering serviced in 2002. Production of Light Combat helicopter (LCH) was announced in 2006, prototype flew in 2010 and it entered service after 11years in 2017. At $20-million per bird, it is not cheap. However its performance has not been great and it is only good for high altitude operations where the heavy attack helos can’t reach. Indian has thus contracted to purchase 22 AH-64 gun ships from America.

Also there is such a thing called ‘Economy of scale’. Few gunships are needed where as we need a lot of medium lift helicopters because the Puma & UH-1 are coming to the end of their operational life. If we must, why not manufacture a medium lift utility helicopter such as Chinese Harbin Z-20 under licence?

This would help us to later design & manufacture an attack helicopter most suitable for our need.

 

[Reichsmarschall]

in 10 years yes.
. with design, investment, manufacturing being done by China and a superb painting job done by paf.

just like what you did with Dhruv

 

[CriticalThought]

Can Pakistan make its own helicopter? - yes of course it can
But it is not doing so currently. But there is nothing in the world that Pakistan cannot make all it needs approval from the top and some time.

Sir, there are quite a few details in making a helicopter... 'some time' would be two decades at least. We are talking about starting from scratch, getting no foreign expertise, researching even the materials/alloys and making even the engines and rotors.

 

[Saquib]

If there is a will there is away! but Pakistan government does not believe in investing in its people its hard work and it means some will lose their hold on power if Pakistan becomes self reliance.

 

[Max]

if given the resources and partnership of european and Chinese firms. Yes

 

[denel]

It definitely could but there is no political will to create infrastructure or long term vision.
They had licence production of allouette where TOT could have been had; if we can produce Oryx from Puma frames or even Rooivalk; there was no reason why this was not doable

 

[pzfz]

Short answer? No.

Long answer? Yes.