Pakistan Pushes Artillery Upgrade Program
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan is consolidating its howitzer inventory around the 155mm round and increasing its MRLS fleet as it strives to boost the lethality of its artillery against India.
Brian Cloughley, former Australian defense attaché to Islamabad and South Asia analyst, said the Army has been modernizing its artillery in recent years as it plans to increase fully mechanized formations.
"There was no apocalyptic moment; it came about because of a normal reassessment of tactics and strategy consistent with the doctrine of 'hold and strike.' For rapid, if deliberately limited, advance, [self propelled] artillery is vital," Cloughley said.
The main acquisitions are at least 297 M-109A5 155mm self-propelled howitzers that have been supplied since 2007 under a $56 million deal made in 2006, and local production of the Turkish MKEK Panter towed 155mm howitzers, by Heavy Industries Taxila's Heavy Mechanical Complex, after 12 were delivered for evaluation in 2007.
Analyst Haris Khan of the Pakistan Military Consortium think tank said the 155mm Panter howitzer has been a substantial improvement over existing guns.
He cites a combination of the Turkish Panter, with the American AN/TPQ-36 Firefinder and Chinese SLC-2 radars, as improving the accuracy of Pakistan's long-range artillery "under a variety of weather conditions at all ranges."
Cloughley highlights a mid-2008 deal with Nexter for the production of 155mm artillery rounds, plus the acquisition of 10 Turkish artillery simulators, which began to enter service with the School of Artillery in 2008 in this regard.
Investment also has been made in long-range MLRS capability. This included evaluation and then procurement of 36 Chinese AR1A/A100E 300mm MLRSs - first displayed to the public during last year's New Resolve military maneuvers.
This led to the evaluation of the Chinese Wei Shi series of MRLS and signing of a contract with China National Precision Machinery Import and Export Corp. in 2009 to procure the NORINCO-developed 300mm MLRS, he said.
The system differs from previous Chinese 300mm MLRS types that were modeled on the Russian Smerch rocket artillery by having 10 instead of 12 tubes. However, the new arrangement of two five-tube pods allows for faster reloading.
Khan said the Army is "very pleased" with the system, and additional numbers are being procured. Having hitherto only imported the system, Khan said, the Army would like to shift to indigenous production.
This could lead to a future order for about 90 NORINCO SH-1 155mm self-propelled howitzers, two of which were tested in 2008, he said.
Being a more deployable six-wheel-drive platform, the SH-1 could considerably boost the Army's ability to deter Indian aggression in Kashmir, where road improvements have been undertaken, Khan said.
Further developments may also be forthcoming for rocket artillery. Cloughley said there is an indigenous MLRS program called Azar, which he said is "similar to the Chinese Type 81" 122mm MLRS. Pakistan's current 122mm Grad-type MLRS is an indigenously produced variant of the North Korean BM-11, and Pakistan Ordnance Factories has developed a high-explosive 122mm rocket called Yarmuk for the system with a range of 45km.
