Pakistan's new winged weapon:Al Jazeera

[jawadqamar]

Pakistan's new winged weapon



Pakistan has a new weapon to combat the Taliban - a domestically made, unmanned aircraft that is expected to replace the country's use of controversial US drones.

With more than 50 air attacks in the last two years, hundreds of civilians have been killed and public attitude towards the government has been inflamed.

The Pakistani military has said it has made gains on the Taliban this year with the aid of US drones, and that it has also been providing reliable information about targets which the US has not taken out.

With greater control over its skies, the Pakistani military hopes that will change.

Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught has this report.

 

[forcetrip]

Need more information regarding this ..

Isnt this a recon drone? .. I got slow connection .. just saw first screen..

 

[TaimiKhan]

Guys this is very old news now, lot of discussion has been done on it it the Military Aviation thread, check it out.

http://www.defence.pk/forums/general-defence/6186-pakistan-uavs-news-discussions-11.html

http://www.defence.pk/forums/military-aviation/32063-pakistan-begins-falco-uav-production-6.html

 

[Righteous_Fire]

Yes, Forcetrip, you are right:

in another thread by taimi which is very detailed, I'll just post it here for you

http://www.defence.pk/forums/military-aviation/32063-pakistan-begins-falco-uav-production-2.html#post456240

Falco has many advantages if we look at our requirements for a tactical surveillance UAV. Check out its function in the above official document of Falco.

And for the time being it can handle a decent load as per requirements, a PicoSAR AESA radar & the EOST-46 electro-optical surveillance & tracking system.

UAV has many categories, MALE, HALE , Tactical UAV, hand held ones etc etc, all have specific requirements & functions to perform.

Armed UAVs are mostly MALE UAV versions.

So Falco will provide a decent capability for our tactical needs.

And it can easily be made into an armed version.

It is the start of the journey, let future come then we see what it really evolves into.

Plus i do have a hunch that PAF has already armed UAVs in operation but does not wishes to be known.

Falco is a tactical UAV, don't confuse it with MALE or HALE versions.

US is using around or more then 10 kind of UAVs in Iraq & Afghanistan.

And local UAV manufacturer versions may need time to reach the western level of UAVs, PAF & other government agencies should & most probably are helping out the private sector but not in the proper way as they should. As per the comments of one leading private UAV manufacturer executive, they if provided with resources of some million dollars will take about 7 to 8 years to make a UAV like predator, so that is why we are looking for western platforms as they are readily available & the most important reason i see for PAF going with Falco UAV is, the italian company has been a long trusted friend of PAF, providing radars & giving license for local production assembly & other things also to PAF.
This italian company has been good to us so far & may even compete for the JF-17 radar & avionics package, plus this companies parent company has many other subsidiaries heavily involved in other defence equipment programs.

Finmeccanica S.p.A is the parent company, holding shares & joint ventures eg MBDA, Agustawestland, ATR (turboprops with PIA), SELEX related 3 companies etc etc, nearly all having defense relations with us.

 

[Righteous_Fire]

As for the video, the reporter said with reference to a group captain:

Pakistan has been jointly developing the Falco UAV with Selex-Galileo Italy for the last two years. It is a Surveillance / Tactical UAV currently without weapons carrying capability but that can be easily installed if required by the PAF.

 

[asq]

Why we the Pakistanis are ever so willing to open up in front of foreigners about our secrets so readily.

And Talking about civilian deaths, he is not so careful and like to have it done by U.S. so that civilian can blame U.S. Not a good signs of sensitivity about human deaths and about U.S. being the fall guy.

Why is it that we have not learn the sophisticated way of communications. Those who are good should be placed in such sansative positions so that we are not seen as uncaring nincompoops who do not value for life.

We have done tremendous job by getting citizens out of the way to get at menace of so called Taliban, I wish we could use that good wisdom in other situations.

 

[Righteous_Fire]

Why we the Pakistanis are ever so willing to open up in front of foreigners about our secrets so readily.

And Talking about civilian deaths, he is not so careful and like to have it done by U.S. so that civilian can blame U.S. Not a good signs of sensitivity about human deaths and about U.S. being the fall guy.

Why is it that we have not learn the sophisticated way of communications. Those who are good should be placed in such sansative positions so that we are not seen as uncaring nincompoops who do not value for life

Seconded Bro! I am amazed at the strange tone that the respected group Captain used, is that how a Professional Soldier of the worthy PAF should talk?!!

1) I completely disagree, it is not the policy of Pakistan or the PAF to blame, try to blame or defame the .

2) On the basis of some shady and un-reliable suspicions about young junior officers being sympathetic to the TTP,( something completely baseless and shameful after the multitude of sacrifices of our armed forces ) maligning and ruining the good name of all of our Professional world standard Military Services is Sad.

3) A person of his rank and experience should know better than to converse like that!!

 

[fhassan]

Why we the Pakistanis are ever so willing to open up in front of foreigners about our secrets so readily.

What secret?

A UAV is hardly anything to be kept top secret.

Moreover, the individuals working on the drones did not agree to meet with al-Jazeera, and so what they are working on for the near future remains hidden.

 

[asq]

fhassan. We all know about developments of various weaponry in the whole world, but we do not see one of those countries forces officer so willing to discuss in the camera all about the development of and discrepancies regarding the system in question.

for God sake let us learn from this kniving world that when talking about national interests, we must not show weakness of our systems and the capabilities that it lacks.

 

[TaimiKhan]

fhassan. We all know about developments of various weaponry in the whole world, but we do not see one of those countries forces officer so willing to discuss in the camera all about the development of and discrepancies regarding the system in question.

for God sake let us learn from this kniving world that when talking about national interests, we must not show weakness of our systems and the capabilities that it lacks.

Sir, Falco UAV is & was no secret. PAF has been the launch customer of this UAV, and read somewhere that the UAV was developed with PAF request & the PAF calendar of 2009 describes it a Joint Venture, which may mean it was planned from the start as a joint venture. This UAV has great potential, an armed & in pure sense a tactical MALE version of Falco, named Falco (Evo) is already in development & may get into air by next year start.

You can call the rumored Buraq UAV (a rumored armed version UAV) a secret as there are no details of it, just rumors.

A simple tactical UAV is no secret, rather telling about it proves the capability of PAF, after a joint venture of JF-17, this is another achievement.

 

[Arsalan]

ISLAMABAD — After years of watching U.S. drones operate along its Afghan border, Pakistan is working on its own Predator-like unmanned aerial vehicle to undertake the same mission, sources here said.

The sources said the country’s air force and government-owned defense conglomerate, the National Engineering and Scientific Commission, are flight-testing a new-design aircraft to be equipped with a NESCom-designed laser designator and laser-guided missiles. The Burraq UAV is named for a winged horse creature in Islamic tradition, similar to Pegasus.

According to local news reports, Pakistan is focusing its unmanned aircraft efforts on upgrading various older UAVs with Chinese help.

But the sources note that no domestically produced UAV is large enough to heft both a missile and a targeting system. The military’s most capable UAV is the air force’s Selex Galileo Falco, which can laser-designate targets for other platforms but cannot deliver munitions.

Officials with the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Defence Production here refused to confirm or deny the program’s existence. A spokesman for the military’s Inter Services Public Relations said it was “not ready to give a statement on the issue at this time.”

One former air force officer said the notion of a Pakistan-developed hunter-killer UAV is credible.

“You only have to see our track record,” said Kaiser Tufail, a retired air commodore. “We have some fantastic achievements in the field of defense.”

Tufail said Pakistan needs such a weapon. Anti-terror operations on the frontier require “hours and hours of round-the-clock reconnaissance,” married with the ability to strike quickly when a target is spotted, he said.

smelling something fishy??? not your fault,,,

regards!

 

[Super Falcon]

hahahahaha fishy

 

[asq]

I think that some of you guys did not get my point, let me say it again, do we ever see an American or Canadian junior officer talking on camera about their weapon development, only ranks of General or defense secretory is seen talking, not a junior officer.

And that is my point. If all junior officer start taking there will be thousands of videos about Pakistani weapons.

My intentions are not harm or hurt someone but to be smart, careful and to be wise about thing that our forces develop.