Hi,
Always buy the best bang for the money---. Never buy cheap---
" SASTA ROY BAAR BAAR---MEHNGA ROY AIK BAAR---". You never heard that saying---.
My Allen Edmonds shoes---$295 a pair lasted so long---that I got tired of seeing them after 10 + years of wearing them---.
Donated them to salvation army---some lucky poor guy got a great deal---.
Pakistan just need to focus its development towards 1 major primary weapons system due to the financial restraints it has---.
LR-SAM is a totally different animal---you need to ally with someone to manufacture it or just buy it outright---. Even Turkey had to go to the russians to buy the S400's---even though Turkey is ahead of Pak in missile tech---.
I bought a pair of Chinese joggers, my whole family laughed at me. I'm still wearing it 4 years later, while other members branded Nikes and others are all torn up.
But I personally think of the issue differently. I don't really want to wear a pair of shoes for even 4 years. I'd rather buy new shoes every year, use them well, and buy them for peanuts. The shoes I spoke of, cost me 12 dollars equivalent.
The lesson here is that general rules based on purchases are always suspect.
If we had the money, we should definitely go with an expensive S-350. But because we don't have the money or will to do this, what I am saying is that it is better to have something.
It's better to have a shoe, even a lousy Chinese pair, rather than no shoes...
Shoes after all, are a necessity. Just like LR-SAMs.
You see, if the enemy attempts a "surgical strike" again, and it finds that a locally build LR-SAM has targeted it and launched - it does not know the pk of the weapon. The reaction would be to dump its bombs and evade.
You've already achieved a mission kill. At minimal costs.
Basically, the shoe fits, and it can get the job done.
PAF fighters can then do a mopping up of whatever surgical strike package remains.
The cost? Peanuts. Rather than a 1000 USD pair of shoes, you are getting them for 10 USD. The price difference is literally that much. I would not be surprised if our scientists could cobble together something that would cost 10 million USD per system. Put 10 such systems, and you have a national LR-SAM coverage with backup to spare. You would use the basic missile technology of a Nasr cobbled with a local seeker. The system needs to work, it doesn't need to be a world beater.