IDN TAKE: KNOW THE REASONS WHY PAKISTAN IS WORRIED ABOUT THE INDO-US DRONE DEAL

[Zarvan]

The drone deal between India and US has sent shock waves in Pakistan. Pakistan has been clamouring for equivocal international attention on the Kashmir issue and on the protracted and intensified wave of terror attacks in that country. Another worrying factor for Pakistan is the recent Indo-US Joint Statement urging it to stop all terror attacks launched from its soil against its neighbours. It also asked Pakistan to bring to justice the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai and Pathankot attacks. PM Modi and President Trump announced increased cooperation to prevent terrorist travel and to disrupt global recruitment efforts. What was majorly unsettling for Pakistan was that the United States for the first time specifically pointed out Pakistan as a perpetrator of terrorism by name in the joint statement.

The Trump administration has authorised the sale of unarmed surveillance drones to India and Pakistan believes the deal threatens its security. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the deal would create military imbalances and strategic instability in the region. Interestingly, China is also keenly watching the defence agreements with particular attention on the deal for surveillance drones that would boost India's capabilities in the Indian Ocean Region [IOR]. India reportedly wants the drones for surveillance of the IOR – which the Chinese navy increasingly traverses after establishing its first overseas base in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti.

Ashley Tellis, an expert on South Asia at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the US decision to offer the Guardian aircraft to India is significant as the US has a standing policy of declining export of such advanced drones other than to allies involved in combined operations with US forces.

A perfidious Pakistan said that the international community should support in its fight against terrorism. The statement says that it is a major victim of terrorism. Condemning the Indo-US Joint Statement, Pakistan said that this would destabilise the already strained situation in the region.

Pakistan has openly condemned the drone deal and said that it would create a military imbalance. This may sound strange for a nuclear country which has often threatened countries of Nuclear War. However, the Pakistan Army infested with Islamic radicals controls a shaky and hapless civilian government, could not digest the drone deal and has openly expressed its displeasure.

Pak's Palpable Concerns
However, what has irked Pakistan more is the drone deal between India and United States, the military establishment believes that this unarmed drone deal could well transform India acquiring the vastly potent combat drones from the United States in the near future.
Meanwhile, India's first missile armed drones that will give it the capability to carry out stand off cross-border strikes are ready in Israel, ahead of the first ever visit to the nation by PM Modi. The Heron-TP armed drones, capable of detecting, tracking and taking down targets with air to ground missiles, have been on the armed forces wish list for years, before the program was fast tracked in September 2015. After all, there is a vast difference in the technologies involved between the American & Israeli drones. The Americans had pioneered the drone platform development over several decades now and some of these advanced technologies may have percolated into several Israeli drones.

What Pakistan's military actually fears is that the armed American "killer" drones, will basically act as cruise missiles to first detect and then destroy specific enemy targets and radars by exploding into them in kamikaze fashion.

What is more worrying for Pakistan is the Guardian drone sale to India by the United States could well be a precursor for the supply of more advanced weaponry in the near future which could well boost India's already overbearing strategic edge over Pakistan.

Thankfully, the Trump administration has fast tracked the sale of these unarmed drones to India unlike the previous administrations which was unwilling to sell drones to New Delhi because it believed the move will disrupt the military balance in the region.

Local Development
The DRDO-Aeronautical Development Agency combine has also launched the Rs 2,650 crore "Ghatak" project to develop an Indian Unmanned Strike Air Vehicle, with the government approving an initial Rs 231 crore for its design and development of critical advanced technologies in May 2016.

But it will take well over a decade for the Ghatak UCAV, which will weigh less than a fighter jet since it will be "more of a flying-wing in design", to take to the skies. The IAF, incidentally, has proposed the creation of a separate cadre to handle UAVs, apart from the flying, technical and ground duty branches, in the future.

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http://www.indiandefensenews.in/2017/07/idn-take-know-reasons-why-pakistan-is.html

 

[#hydra#]

Tell me what an unarmed UAV can cause to pakistan,I say none.