IDEAS 2012: Pakistan, China to market Al-Khalid tank together

Pakistan is aiming to find international buyers for its prized Al-Khalid tank, after reaching an understanding with co-producer China to market the product together, a top military official said on Sunday.
Heavy Industries, Taxila, and Beijing’s Norinco signed a memorandum of understanding to this effect on Thursday during the International Defence Exhibition and Seminar (IDEAS) 2012, Director General of Defence Export Promotion Organisation Major General Tariq Khan said.
“We are not in the business of selling t-shirts,” Khan said during the closing ceremony of the exhibition, as newsmen pushed him to justify claims about the event being a success. “It takes months and years of negotiations to seal the agreements. This MoU will help us a lot.”
“We have also received orders for our unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, which is used for intelligence gathering by police and military in different parts of the world,” he added.
The Al-Khalid tank was developed in the 1990s. It is equipped with a 125mm gun and has the capability to fire sophisticated ammunition including missiles in both stationary and moving conditions.

For years, Pakistan has been trying in vain to sell the product, while China is also marketing a variant of Al-Khalid. Joint marketing with China opens up potential markets that would otherwise have been difficult for Islamabad to penetrate into, officials said.  Under the deal, profit from the sale will be mutually shared.
Major General Khan said selling heavy equipment like tanks and aircraft is not easy as political considerations need to be taken into account. “At times even if a country wants to buy something, the deal breaks off because of some political angle.”
Foreign delegates who visited the exhibition will come back with requests to test the military gear and equipment in coming months, he said. “But I can assure you there has been a lot of interest in what we make.”
However, Khan said it was impossible to state in numbers the size of deals made during the exhibition.
Military officials involved in international defence trade say Pakistan is continuously being sidelined because of its geopolitical situation.
Meanwhile, Minister for Defence Production Sardar Bahadur Khan said another jointly developed product with China, the JF-17 Thunder fighter plane, will be marketed soon as well.

Pakistani drones are for surveillance use only: Naveed Qamar

Federal Minister for Defence Syed Naveed Qamar  said that Pakistan’s drone technology is at its initial stage. It has been used by the armed forces for air surveillance only.
Speaking to media representatives during his visit to International Defence Exhibition IDEAS-2012, the defence minister said that these drones are not capable of carrying arms.

He said the IDEAS-2012 will help create awareness about new defence technology and trends of defence. It will also help ascertain the requirement of our armed forces and to introduce our defence products in the world.
He said the private sector in the world was playing a prominent role in defence production activities. In Pakistan, traditionally the defence production was restricted to public sector. But, he said, now it is time to engage our private sector in defence production too.

“The government has been extending all possible support and facilitation to our private sector to come up and play a front role in this important national task,” he added.

International Defense Exhibition IDEAS 2012- Pictures

Asian Defence News

Rocket launcher at Defence Exhibition IDEAS 2012.

Asian Defence News

Uqaab UAV of Pakistan at = IDEAS 2012

          Uqaab UAV of Pakistan

POF Eye..... Made in Pakistan Expo Defense Exhibition,

                                      POF Eye.....  Expo Defense Exhibition, 2012. Karachi, Pakistan.


The POF Eye is available in several variations. It can be mounted with standard 9mm semi-automatic pistol, submachine gun or grenade launcher. It includes a small, high-resolution camera, laser sight and a colour LCD monitor, which can observe and view a target from various vantage points. The video camera enables forces to scan an area prior to pinpointing a target and broadcast the footage directly, in real time, to the operating team behind, or to a monitor at Command Post in the rear. Its head can turn 75 degrees.

The name given to Pakistani version of Corner Shot Gun is POF eye , with POF short for Pakistan Ordnance Factories. This product first came to limelight in late 2008 during the IDEAS 2008 in Karachi. Chairman POF Board Lt Gen Syed Sabahat Husain told the visiting delegates at IDEAS 2008 that this new product of POF may meet the requirement of law enforcing agencies in order to curb the terrorist activities. The live demonstration of this gun was also shown to the delegates.

Design & Features:
According to one of the designers, Ashfaq Ahmad, the overall designing and finalizing of this gun took 6 months. It has a few variations which can be summed up as follows:



 - It can be mounted with standard 9mm semi-automatic pistol, sub-machine gun or grenade launcher.

- includes a small high-resolution camera, laser sight and a colour LCD monitor, which can observe and view a target from various vantage points.




- The video camera enables forces to scan an area prior to pinpointing a target and broadcast the footage directly, in real time, to the operating team behind, or to a Command Post monitor.

- Head can turn 75 degrees
 

Pakistan Army Tank on display during the Ideas 2012 Exhibition at Expo Center, Karachi, Pakistan.

Pakistan Army Tank on display during the Ideas 2012 Exhibition at Expo Center, Karachi, Pakistan.

Ideas-2012: Chinese company signs MoU with HIT

Foreign buyers from over 50 countries have expressed keen interest in defence products manufactured by both local and foreign companies participating in Ideas-2012, the country's largest mega event displaying military equipment. During the 2nd day of the exhibition Thursday, a Chinese defence firm Novinco signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Heavy Industries Taxila (HIT) for mutual co-operation and trade in defence products.

The agreement was signed by Lieutenant General Ayaz Saleem chairman HIT and Wang Li, vice President Novinco. According to sources, Pakistan for the first time was going to import Mine Resistant Ambush Vehicles. Poly Technologies of China a prominent company dealing with advanced equipment and technology will be providing the important vehicles (which were also displayed here in the exhibition) to Pakistan. The vehicle was designed to provide secured transportation for combat personnel and material especially under the threat of anti-tank mines. Besides it will also be beneficial for performing anti-terrorism and anti-riot mission.

Besides, China Shipbuilding Trading Corporation (CSTC) will also be providing four new ships to Pakistan Navy this year. During the exhibition, visitors, mainly foreign buyers, shown keen interest in the locally produced defence equipment as well as products displayed by foreign firms. Around 209 firms were exhibiting their products of which 135 were foreign while 74 were Pakistani forms.

Majority of the spaces were booked by companies from Turkey, China, North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Far Eastern countries. All the industry giants of Pakistan including Pakistan Navy, PAC Kamra, POF, DGMP, HRI -PAF MT Dte, Procon Eng, Alsons, GIDS, Karachi Shipyard and others were there at Expo Center Karachi. Talking to Business Recorder, Muhammad Naveed, director, Sure Nice Trader, said that the gloves jackets and others goods of security and defence purposes were being exported to many developing countries. A representative of Siddiqsons Limited at the company's stall said the company has received good import orders from Iran and some other Middle Eastern countries. The company, according to him was also going to export uniforms, tents, bullet-proof jackets and others to Iraq and Libya as new emerging markets. Afghanistan was also being targeted for the company's products.

Visitors mainly locals also found much interest in the locally produced drones of 'Integrated Dynamics' by a Pakistani firm which deals in aerospace and robotic systems, apparently because of the drone attacks by US in Pakistan. Though the small drones were only capable of monitoring and intelligence services, people wanted to have information about the products, technology and usage. Raja Sabri Khan, Chief Executive of the company, however informed that drone was the merging technology in the world. Though Pakistan was also exporting the monitoring/intelligence based drones to US, Australia and some European countries, its share in the over $12 billion worth global market/trade of the new technology was highly negligible. He however said that the small drones could be used by law enforcement agencies for monitoring, surveillance purposes with comparatively very less expenses as compared to the huge cost made by existing techniques and equipment/appliances.

Along with the exhibition, seminars on "Pakistan's success during war on terror," "asymmetric threat and response," " Preparing for the unknown-quick and effective emergency response from the TRI services," and "increased role of armed forces in nation building," were also held in fours sessions at the expo center on Thursday where prominent experts retired army officers and foreigners have addressed the visitors/participants.

IDEAS-2012 Pakistan 7-11 November 2012

IDEAS-2012 is scheduled to be held from 7-11 November 2012 at Expo Centre, Karachi. In order to give a momentous head start, Soft Launching Ceremony was organized and conducted with full zeal and enthusiasm at Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA) Auditorium on 30 March 2012.  Prime Minister of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani graced the occasion as the Chief Guest. The event was attended by Diplomats, Ministerial Staff, High Officials from tri services and business community.
A short duration cultural show with instrumental performances was arranged for the participants.  The impressive display of Models by leading Defence Manufacturers of Public Sector, provided an opportunity to all visitors to see the defence capability.