Ali.009
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2008
- Messages
- 965
- Reaction score
- -6
The Chinese Pakistani relationship is more than 5000 years old when the Indus Valley Pakistanis used to trade with the Chinese. In modern times, Pakistan was one of the first countries to recognize the People Republic of China when she was in total and absolute isolation. At the time only Albania recognized Beijing. Through the years the friendship has grown by leap and bounds and there is genuine respect and emotion on both side of the Karakurrams when they reach out to each other.
Pakistan was a founding member of SEATO and CENTO and helped the West in spying on and eventually destroying the USSR. In 1971 Pakistan was under sanctions (for using American planes on a non-communist country) when India attacked her. The Pakistanis learned their lesson when they paid the USA and General Dynamics $450 million for F-16s, and never got the planes or their money back. GD delivered the planes to a desert where they rusted while Pakistan faced multiple sanctions. Also at the height of the cold war, Pakistan was vulnerable when the Soviets entered Pakistani airspace at will.
Chinese learned their lesson when their deal to buy Phalcons from Israel in 2000 was blocked. However they were able to get a lot of technology from Israel. Both China and Pakistan have now been partners in sophisticated weapons development for three decades and the results are astonishing. Both countries produced a working model of the JF-17 Thunder in less than 4 years, and now are improving it moving beyond the 4th generation of fighters. The same philosophy is at work with the PF-22 Frigates of which the finest one has already been delivered.
The defence cooperation between China and Pakistan goes beyond purchasing and supplier. Both China and Pakistan work on transfer of technology so that Pakistan can manufacture the equipment, first as a joint venture and then independently. This has happened with the Khalid tanks, the JF0Thunder fighters and the AWACS.
The alliance works well. Pakistan on many occasions has access to the latest equipment and technology, and Chinahas the manufacturing facilities. Pakistan comes up withthe requirements and about half the money, and then both countries develop the first generation of the products. As Pakistan or China gets access to more technology, they improve the product to the next generation.
In November 2006, Pakistan and China on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding for a long-term collaboration in defence production including development of an airborne early warning surveillance system.
The SAAB-Ericsson Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) deal with Pakistan was first announced in October 2005, and includes a Saab 2000 turboprop jet equipped with airborne radars from Ericsson Microwave Systems. Pakistan had made the choice between Saab’s Erieye and Boeing’s 737 AEWS and settled for the former because of the latter’s prohibitive cost. (ANI).In June, Pakistan signed up to acquire five Swedish Saab-2000 Erieye AWACS, more than two years after India ordered three Israeli Phalcons. But these are both expensive, limiting the numbers that can be acquired by either country.
A point of concern to the IAF is that the Chinese AWACS is near test readiness, which means Islamabad, when it chooses to buy them, will be in a position to deploy it in large numbers far before the Indian homegrown airborne early warning project, under development by DRDO’s Centre for Airborne Systems (CABS) in Bangalore, actually takes off.
A senior IAF officer said, “Historically, decisions between China and Pakistan happen much faster. That means, they could have a greater density of airborne radar coverage before we do.”
Long-range airborne radar coverage will be principal factors in ensuring that no air violations take place on either side.
Pakistan has been criticised for now owning two separate and distinct AWAC systems, one Western and one Asian (China-Pakistan). Pakistan will hook up the F-16s and the Western planes to the SAAB system and the Chinese planes to the Y-8/9. As the Saab technology permeates into Pakistan, she will then include it into the AWACS that are ingeniously produced. Also by hedging its bets against sabotage and sanctions, Pakistan will have a redundant early warning system.
The PAF and the Saab 2000 Friday, April 18, 2008 Ali Abbas Rizvi
In the early Eighties, Soviet air intrusion into Pakistan airspace dramatically increased. In 1986, hostile helicopter-gunships entered Pakistan and flew over the town of Parachinar for half an hour, strafing targets at will. Pakistan turned to the United States and sought help, including E-3A Sentry AWACS, to thwart the Soviet designs. However, the Americans did not oblige the Pakistanis, though they offered a much downgraded E-2C Hawkeyes, a bid that was rejected. Nevertheless, the US airlifted Sidewinder air-to-air missiles
(AAMs) from NATO’s reserved stocks and provided it to the PAF. The first PAF pilot who, despite strict rules of engagement, downed enemy aircraft in Pakistani territory was Squadron Leader Qadri, who rose to the rank of air commodore and was later tragically killed in an air crash as base commander of Minhas (Kamra).
Since then, advanced early warning and control (AEW&C) systems have been in the radar sights of the Pakistan Air Force.
There are three types of early-warning systems in the market. The first is called airborne early warning (AEW), which is rather outdated. The second is the airborne early warning and control system (AEW&C), which receives orders from the ground or from AWACS, the third and most advanced system.
The need for airborne early-warning increased manifold during the Nineties when the Americans stopped the supply of F-16Cs to the PAF under the Pressler Amendment. The PAF got into trouble while its traditional adversary, the Indian Air Force, bought one advanced weapon system after another. All the PAF could do was to watch and upgrade its Mirage IIIs and Vs, while it also bought F-7s and second-hand Mirage IIIs.
Now, luckily for the service, things are improving. It is in the process of getting more F-16s, has co-manufactured the JF-17 and, on the top of it, will soon receive its first AEW&C, the Saab 2000 turboprop ERIEYE aircraft.
In June 2006, the PAF had signed a deal for the supply of six Saab 2000s.
However, because of shortage of funds, the number of aircraft was revised to five. The first of the five such aircraft was rolled out on April 4, 2007, in Sweden and was being equipped with a full suite of mission systems, including radars and avionics. It will join the first PAF AEW&C squadron next year.
The ERIEYE, developed by the Ericsson Microwave Systems, comprises fixed, dual-sided and electronically scanned phased-array pulse-Doppler radar mounted on top of the fuselage. The ERIEYE uses a shorter-range but much more compact and advanced Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) system. On the other hand, the Pakistan Navy has opted for the E-2C Hawkeye radar mounted on P3C Orion aircraft, which are based on the Passive Electronically Scanned Array (PESA) system.
In August 2006, it had been reported that a prototype Y-8 Chinese AWACS, whose project was started after Beijing failed to get the Israeli Phalcon system in 2000, was in Pakistan, giving operational demos at the Chaklala airbase. The development was not surprising as Pakistan was also working on a project to jointly develop Sino-Pakistani AWACS.
The Saab AEW&C will provide the PAF with certain major advantages.
First, the Saabs, which have a ceiling of 31,000 feet, will be able to detect all aircraft taking off and landing at Indian airbases near the border. Apparently, they can also identify the kind of aircraft that have taken off and whether they are equipped with missiles and drop tanks, their altitudes and the direction in which they are headed. The radar capabilities and range of the Saabs are, of course, confidential, though it is expected that they may have a range of 350 kilometres and beyond. This will allow them to provide early warning in case of pre-emptiveattacksfrom across the border. Second, these aircraft will coordinate with PAF aircraft flying at the same time from several air bases. The AEW&C system will track them and coordinate their movement.
Third, the Saab will allow Pakistani fighter aircraft to fly without operating their own radars and, thereby, making it difficult for unfriendly forces to track them. In case of hostilities, the Saabs would serve as force multipliers.
Fourth, the Saab AEW&C will coordinate with the army in missions for Cobra gunships that regularly take on extremist elements on the Pakistani-Afghan border besides airlifting operations.
Fifth, the AEW&C will be able to check air violations by enemy aircraft and launching of missiles within its range. Also, it can apparently track communications on the ground, troops movement, radars, missile sites and movement of ships.
However, at the same time, operation of an AEW&C system, like the Saab 2000, is not exactly a piece of cake for the service. As it is, AEW&C is a precious asset for any air force, especially the cash-starved PAF, and as such, it has to be well-guarded both at the ground and in the air. Accordingly, it has to fly in the company of several advanced interceptor aircraft that can take on any adversary.
But another threat that AWACS would face would be from surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) and beyond-visual-range BVRmissiles, which can be fired from across the border. Nevertheless, with two Rolls Royce AE2100 engines, Saab 2000 remains one of the fastest turboprop aircraft in the world, achieving a cruise speed of 665 km/h (360 kt), though with a mounted antenna on its top, this speed may not be possible.
Yet another issue is that enemy forces could try to jam the equipment on board the Saab 2000. Therefore, the AEW&C will have to have on board jamming-resistant system with strong electronic countermeasures. Because the ERIEYE is an extremely fast scan radar, it would strongly resist electronic countermeasures.
Also, the Saab 2000 has to have long endurance and be able to stay at its station. For example, the E-3A Sentry, the most advanced AWACS in the world, has endurance of up to eight hours. While the PAFhas been also trying to procure tanker aircraft, it is not known if the Saab turboprop would have refuelling capability. Nevertheless, the manufacturers claim that “the Saab 2000 aircraft is able to incorporate high-speed dash withlow-speed loitering capability, with inherent fuel efficiency that meets demanding AEW&C requirements for performing a 180-degree turn in less than 30 seconds with an endurance of more than 9 hours.”
Meanwhile, the Indians will be getting this year the first of the three Israeli Phalcon systems as part of a $1.1 billion deal signed in 2003. The Phalcon system is to be mounted on Russian Il-76 aircraft which the IAF has sourced from Uzbekistan. The Il-76 aircraft, with in-flight refuelling, can stay at their stations up to 14 hours. Earlier, the Russians had offered the Indian Air Force Beriev A-50 Mainstay AEW aircraft, dispatching two of them to India in April 2000. However, the deal fell through. The Indians have revived their indigenous AEW system that had suffered a setback in 1999 when the HS-748 platform crashed, killing the crew and five top scientists.
The introduction of Saab 2000 ERIEYE would introduce a new dimension to PAF’s defensive capabilities, providing it with a top-of-the-line platform to deal with modern-day threats.
Turkey joins Pakistan, China in joint efforts for Space Technology
The CIA Connection…continues…in China
BEIJING (China): Turkey has joined Pakistan, China and six other countries in the region to make joint efforts for the development of space technology.
Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey in China Oktay Ozuye signed the Convention of the Asia Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO) on behalf of his government. Thus Turkey has become the ninth State to sign the APSCO Convention.
Informed sources said on Wednesday that the organization is aimed at promoting multilateral cooperation in the field of space technology.
Other six countries that have already inked the Convention are Iran, Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Mongolia and Peru. Five countries Argentina, Brazil, Philippine, Russian Federation and Ukraine joined the APSCO with observer’s status.
Sources say that this is a big breakthrough in strengthening regional cooperation for peaceful use of outer space for the benefit of all mankind.
Pakistan and China played a pioneering role in establishing the organization, first of its kind to expand and intensify cooperation in space activities in the Asia-Pacific region.
This will enable the member countries to share their experience, know-how and potential for their common benefit. They will share their available resources in the use of satellite remote sensing data in environmental protection, natural resources exploitation as well as disaster monitoring and prevention.
The sources hoped that Pakistan and other member countries that joined APSCO will soon get the Convention ratified by their respective Parliaments to make it fully functional. Meanwhile, an interim council at the Ministerial level had been constituted to undertake necessary preparatory work.
China, being a host country has offered to provide full financial support for the establishment and operation of the APSCO until 2006. As such, the member States are not under any obligation to make financial contributions during the preparatory phase. However, they will be required to pay their financial contributions from the year 2007.
Taking in view the immense potential of Space Technology and its spin-offs in the socio-economic uplift of the countries, three Asia-Pacific countries, China, Pakistan and Thailand had taken an initiative and jointly signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in February 1992 for setting up the Asia-Pacific Multilateral Cooperation in Space Technology and Applications (AP-MCSTA).
According to the sources, the benefits to be accrued to the Asia-Pacific countries by virtue of their membership to APSCO will be enormous, including creation of multilateral compatibilities among space systems by the member states that can provide enhanced capabilities in several areas of space technology applications. In June, Pakistan signed up to acquire six Swedish Saab-2000 Erieye AWACS, more than two years after India ordered three Israeli Phalconjets. But these are both expensive, limiting the numbers that can be acquired by either country.
A point of concern to the IAF is that the Chinese AWACS is near test readiness, which means Islamabad, when it chooses to buy them, will be in a position to deploy it in large numbers far before the Indian homegrown airborne early warning project, under development by DRDO’s Centre for Airborne Systems (CABS) in Bangalore, actually takes off.
A senior IAF officer said, “Historically, decisions between China and Pakistan happen much faster. That means, they could have a greater density of airborne radar coverage before we do.”
Long-range airborne radar coverage will be principal factors in ensuring that no air violations take place on either side.
