This one is slightly better, but you can tell they’ve been given prior talking points and have to stick to those. But at least this host was willing to ask some questions.
The more useful stuff is the footage.
The highlights being;
1. 70% of the AK/AK-1 and T80UD powertrains have been localized, a higher number than just a few years ago. And more than 95% of the electrical/FCS/GCS components too (but this has been true for a few years now).
2. The FCS and GCS of AK-1 are indigenous, something that has been otherwise known but not officially confirmed till now.
3. The local assembly of VT4 is now all the way down to the basic assembly and welding of the hull and turret, however, we cannot call it entirely local production yet because unlike the Al-Khalid, all the steel and composite components being welded together are still being imported from China. This will take time to change. However, other things like certain electronics are being localized, the drivers night sight being an example.
4. Local production of 39 Caliber 155MM guns for M109A5 is undergoing, HIT attempted this project over a decade ago and failed, but is now doing it.
5. The local artillery platform that has been talked about earlier is still being worked on, the initial HIT and army trials were conducted and now the platform is being worked on further according to the information from the trials.
6. The Upgraded Al-Zarrar variant is in production, remains to be seen wether these are newly upgraded ones on older, existing ones are being upgraded. We can see a turret numbered “31” in the video.
7. Not the same as the above, but it was interesting to note the chairman of ARDIC directly calling out “friendly countries” for not providing or outright banning our access to software, hardware, designs and models etc. He even repeated it twice, you can tell he’s frustrated about it. I noticed this same frustration from the officers and engineers there when I went. And he mentions it directly on camera too, I know it’s not much, but I’m glad to see even this amount of a backbone, that they’re not just signing “Pak-Chin Dosti Zindabad” and actually saying things as they are. The local production of VT4 is a much bigger example of the Chinese not being as sincere as needed about defense than the JF-17 and J-10C.
@arslank03 ^