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Featured Project Azm: Pakistan's Ambitious Quest to Develop 5th Generation Military Technologies.

But the experience of working in one of the top 3 aircraft engine manufacturers... that has to be valuable and something that one can learn from. It would help create a similar kind of culture and way of thinking, and bring in expertise. It is not always about talent alone, otherwise Pak would win the world cup every time.
PAF has built a fair bit of local talent by sending people overboard for their PHDs and dictorates. A lot of these people come back and contribute to the nation's development. It is true that we have a built in pool.
With regards to foreign companies you have to understand that a lot of these enterprises are private enterprises. They have mmutliple projects ongoing and employ people from all over. However do they have the same leniencies when employing for the "skunk works"? I think they would vet their work force very carefully.
A friends so went on an interview post masters in encryption to IBM. A Brilliant lad, he was offered a job straight away.Salary was a blank six figure sum of his choice. However he was told that the nature of his job meant that he would never find work with any other organization if he resigned from this job. He chose to proceed ahead with his PHD and joined a Uni in Islamabad. Did a lot of work for the Pak Government but I think is now back in UK.
A
 
PAF has built a fair bit of local talent by sending people overboard for their PHDs and dictorates. A lot of these people come back and contribute to the nation's development. It is true that we have a built in pool.
With regards to foreign companies you have to understand that a lot of these enterprises are private enterprises. They have mmutliple projects ongoing and employ people from all over. However do they have the same leniencies when employing for the "skunk works"? I think they would vet their work force very carefully.
A friends so went on an interview post masters in encryption to IBM. A Brilliant lad, he was offered a job straight away.Salary was a blank six figure sum of his choice. However he was told that the nature of his job meant that he would never find work with any other organization if he resigned from this job. He chose to proceed ahead with his PHD and joined a Uni in Islamabad. Did a lot of work for the Pak Government but I think is now back in UK.
A

Hi Araz,

I have a phd and years of work experience in a number of fields. I also teach and am an administrator at a university. I personally feel that people in the Third World don't understand that getting a university degree is not the same kind of value as having serious work experience in the field. These two different kinds of experiences are worlds apart.

I would go so far as to say that they are not comparable. People in countries like Pakistan, India, etc tend to think that getting a degree (after a ton of memorization, which is a different issue) is somehow making them technically competent. It is not.

To understand the operational modus operandi, to have specific skills, to understand how to integrate the vast number of disciplines that one person cannot master. I'm not being able to explain it to you - there is no comparison. And the idea of saying "we have talent" borders on the childish.

The example I was giving - Pakistan has talent in cricket, incredible talent. But how does the national team perform? What kind of thinking, attitude, culture, skills, technique, philosophy, methodology,.... does a winning team need?

And with all the talent in cricket, available in every neighborhood, Pakistan still lacks and looks sometimes like an amateur team. That gap, is even wider when we talk about aeronautical engineering, metallurgy and the host of other technologies.

This is why, for instance in the software development field, one has to have "business analysts" to work with programmers, and bring things together. Why different methodologies get developed and tested, like RUP, Agile.

And when we talk about metallurgy, one simply can't be a good metallurgist by studying in a class-room. It takes an eco-system of talent management, it takes a large number of metallurgists who have genuine interest in their field and are constantly experimenting, and collaborating, and sharing. Something Pakistani culture, attitude and mindset cannot even dream of.

We have right now a very rudimentary understanding of managing technology. We seem to think it is like making a biryani. Put all the ingredients - the Masters degree, the PhD, etc and viola! You'll make an F-22.

What innovation, competitiveness, the ecosystem of evolving tech management requires is far more complex than this. No asian country has truly been able to crack this issue. Singapore tried in the most ridiculous way - they saw that intellectuals and thinkers, and scientists and engineers, and what not, hang out, sit at Starbucks and create their intellectual eco-system in California.

The Singaporeans, desperate to be innovative, tried to replicate everything down to the Starbucks coffee shop. They still failed.

You see, it was never about memorizing information and sitting in an American university, chilling with the other Pakistanis eating bengun and roti, getting an "A" grade with nights of studying. There was a big element missing. The biggest element. Malek Bennabi, an Algerian engineer-cum-philosopher, called it the other side of the West which we in the East failed to appreciate.
 
@araz and others

When we were Uni grads, we had 'men of character, insight, compassion and humility', they trained us to be proficient in our work, to be humble, wise, with insight. They groomed us to be good team members and leaders. People like munir ahmed khan, Anwar choudhry, Nazir A choudhry etc. Today, these wise men have all left us & we are left with 'Androids' who know their work well but are just androids with nothing inside, no insight or wisdom or compassion or humility. As long as they remain what they are, Androids, it will still work but given the pace of development and evolution, if they progress further to stage of Nanthedrals, we could be a lost cause. @Oscar

Hi Araz,

I have a phd and years of work experience in a number of fields. I also teach and am an administrator at a university. I personally feel that people in the Third World don't understand that getting a university degree is not the same kind of value as having serious work experience in the field. These two different kinds of experiences are worlds apart.

I would go so far as to say that they are not comparable. People in countries like Pakistan, India, etc tend to think that getting a degree (after a ton of memorization, which is a different issue) is somehow making them technically competent. It is not.

To understand the operational modus operandi, to have specific skills, to understand how to integrate the vast number of disciplines that one person cannot master. I'm not being able to explain it to you - there is no comparison. And the idea of saying "we have talent" borders on the childish.

The example I was giving - Pakistan has talent in cricket, incredible talent. But how does the national team perform? What kind of thinking, attitude, culture, skills, technique, philosophy, methodology,.... does a winning team need?

And with all the talent in cricket, available in every neighborhood, Pakistan still lacks and looks sometimes like an amateur team. That gap, is even wider when we talk about aeronautical engineering, metallurgy and the host of other technologies.

This is why, for instance in the software development field, one has to have "business analysts" to work with programmers, and bring things together. Why different methodologies get developed and tested, like RUP, Agile.

And when we talk about metallurgy, one simply can't be a good metallurgist by studying in a class-room. It takes an eco-system of talent management, it takes a large number of metallurgists who have genuine interest in their field and are constantly experimenting, and collaborating, and sharing. Something Pakistani culture, attitude and mindset cannot even dream of.

We have right now a very rudimentary understanding of managing technology. We seem to think it is like making a biryani. Put all the ingredients - the Masters degree, the PhD, etc and viola! You'll make an F-22.

What innovation, competitiveness, the ecosystem of evolving tech management requires is far more complex than this. No asian country has truly been able to crack this issue. Singapore tried in the most ridiculous way - they saw that intellectuals and thinkers, and scientists and engineers, and what not, hang out, sit at Starbucks and create their intellectual eco-system in California.

The Singaporeans, desperate to be innovative, tried to replicate everything down to the Starbucks coffee shop. They still failed.

You see, it was never about memorizing information and sitting in an American university, chilling with the other Pakistanis eating bengun and roti, getting an "A" grade with nights of studying. There was a big element missing. The biggest element. Malek Bennabi, an Algerian engineer-cum-philosopher, called it the other side of the West which we in the East failed to appreciate.
 
@araz and others

When we were Uni grads, we had 'men of character, insight, compassion and humility', they trained us to be proficient in our work, to be humble, wise, with insight. They groomed us to be good team members and leaders. People like munir ahmed khan, Anwar choudhry, Nazir A choudhry etc. Today, these wise men have all left us & we are left with 'Androids' who know their work well but are just androids with nothing inside, no insight or wisdom or compassion or humility. As long as they remain what they are, Androids, it will still work but given the pace of development and evolution, if they progress further to stage of Nanthedrals, we could be a lost cause. @Oscar
Lack of project experience - lack of flexibility in thought , but most importantly the crop due to successive dictatorship and political maneuvering have vested interests which compromise any development project from day 1.

I still experience this is in the US private sector where I work, politics and pet peeves come into play but the simple need to survive wakes companies up. Not to mention a few dedicated change agents who push and prod the mediocrity along.

That is also all We have keeping Pakistani R&D from entering Iranian territory.
 
Very eager to see some official handout of the design soon
 
PAF has built a fair bit of local talent by sending people overboard for their PHDs and dictorates.
I have stated that before as well... this was initiative of Pervez Musharraf.
Actually Musharraf started education revolution in Pakistan.
Unfortunately the enemies of Pakistan are cutting down on education and defense budget.
 
Pakistan’s “Project Azm” whose centrepiece involves development of its own fifth generation fighter has accelerated, with first of the four “conceptual design phase” cycles being concluded.

The MoDP yearbook stated that the AvRID Secretariat has completed the first cycle of the conceptual design. It stated, “The first cycle of the conceptual design phase has been completed. The first configuration that was designed based on the challenging performance requirements of PAF will go through three more cycles within the conceptual design using higher fidelity analysis tools and codes.”

The Fifth-Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) is the highlight of the much-anticipated Project Azm, which outlines the PAF’s ambition for developing a state of the art aviation industrial base within the country. This aviation industrial complex will support the defense capabilities of the country, alongside fulfilling civilian and commercial aviation needs.

The PAF formally initiated Project Azm in July 2017 with the objective of developing an FGFA, a medium-altitude and long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), new munitions, and other projects.

When it announced Project Azm, the then Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Chief Marshal (ACM) Sohail Aman, had stated that the design work of the MALE UAV was in its “final stages.” The 2017-2018 MoDP yearbook stated that the scheduled deadline for the MALE UAV’s maiden flight was June 2019.

In terms of the FGFA, in a recent interview with the PAF Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan, stated that he does not expect the FGFA to become operational for “another decade.”

http://airrecognition.com/index.php...7Sir4c6PvXWZEINmK8ca0TC5T7O67vUV0R_9O8rvLLQjo
 
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