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The Armor Division of Pakistan Army

Pakistan's tool of war: Al-Khalid Main Battle Tank – the armoured fist
Ali Osman
Updated November 10, 2015

563ce72a315ad.jpg

The Armoured Corps is rich in tradition, with storied units still included in its order of battle. — AFP/File
563ce72a315ad.jpg

This article was originally published on November 10, 2015.

If the tanks succeed, then victory follows
-Heinz Guderian

Armoured units are the primary force multipliers utilised by ground forces for offensive actions conducted using the fundamental elements of speed and firepower.

Although tanks were introduced towards the tail-end of the Great War, the fundamentals of armoured warfare came in on their own during the German blitz across Europe and North Africa during World War II, and were later used by the Red Army with the same devastating effect in their march towards Berlin.
Pakistan Army’s Armoured Corps came into being with the creation of Pakistan, and inherited six regiments from the old British Indian Army. The Armoured Corps is rich in tradition, with storied units still included in its order of battle. It is a proud fighting arm of the Pakistani army.

The MBT
The Al-Khalid Main Battle Tank (MBT) forms the backbone of Pakistan Army’s Armoured Corps.

The tank is a result of close collaboration between Heavy Industries Taxila (HIT) of Pakistan and China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO), with the first prototype developed in the early '90s.

The Al-Khalid is a further development of the Chinese Type 90-II tank. The tank is locally produced at the HIT complex, and an estimated 600 vehicles are in service.

Al-Khalid MBT incorporates Russian and Chinese design philosophy in its manufacture. The tank itself is considerably lighter and smaller, incorporating a lower profile when compared to its Western counterparts.

Race across the desert
The Al-Khalid is powered by a Ukrainian 6TD-2 liquid-cooled diesel engine which delivers 1,200 horsepower, propelling the tank to a maximum speed of 70 kilometres per hour. The engine utilises pistons arranged horizontally in an opposed piston configuration, which reduces the size of the engine and fits well inside the medium-sized hull of the vehicle. The same engine is also mounted on Pakistan’s T-80UD MBTs.

Read: Pakistan's tool of war: Agosta 90B, our submarine in the deep

During the design phase, special emphasis was laid on high-performance cooling and air filtering systems to counter the high ambient temperatures and the fine sand which would be encountered in operational areas of Pakistan’s Thar and Cholistan deserts, enabling it to race across the desert to engage the enemy.

563df68f5e330.jpg

Ukrainian 6TD-2 liquid-cooled diesel engine propels the tank to a maximum speed of 70 kilometres per hour — Source: armyrecognition.com


The Al-Khalid is able to cross water obstacles 1.4 metres deep without preparation, and can cross water obstacles to a maximum depth of 5 metres with a snorkel attached.

Armoured fist
The primary task assigned to any MBT is to penetrate enemy lines using violence of action and wreak havoc in the enemy’s rear.

The Al-Khalid is equipped with a 125mm smoothbore main gun, capable of firing a variety of rounds and the 9M119M Refleks (Nato reporting name AT-11 Sniper) anti-tank guided missile, a tandem warhead missile with a range of five kilometres, also fired through the main gun.

The main gun is capable of shooting six to eight rounds per minute. The tank is equipped with a laser rangefinder and a computerised fire control system, with the main gun stabilised on a dual-axis, enabling it to shoot accurately on the move.

539db20e9d854.jpg

Al-Khalid tanks commence their advance during a military exercise. — AFP/File


The gunner and commander have dual day/night sights with thermal imaging, in order to lay accurate fire on both stationary and moving targets at any time of the day. The commander also has a panoramic hunter-killer sight at his disposal, which is used to designate targets for the gunner.

The Al-Khalid also comes equipped with an autoloader, reducing the crew to three, another facet of Russian tank design philosophy which was incorporated into the tank. The Al-Khalid has a 12.7mm heavy machine gun placed on the commander’s cupola, with a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun placed next to the main gun.

The tank is capable of firing the Pakistani Naiza 125mm depleted uranium (DU) round, which maintains a one-shot kill capability.

In short, if the Al-Khalid meets the T-90S Bhisma on the plains of Punjab or the deserts of Sindh, it is more than capable of achieving a one shot kill on its adversary.

Steel plated beast
In terms of protection, the Al-Khalid’s hull is made of hardened steel armour plates placed over Rolled Homogenous Armour (RHA), while the sides and the turret incorporates modular armour, allowing the operator to change damage armoured modules with ease.

The tank is also equipped with Explosive Reactive Armour (ERA) bricks for added protection. ERA bricks cover the turret front, roof, sides and hull glacis.

563de57a17349.jpg

Al-Khalid during a military exercise. — Photo courtesy Pakistan Army


In addition to the capable armour protection, the crew is also protected by a collective NBC (nuclear, biological and chemical) system. The tank incorporates internal fire extinguisher and explosion-suppression systems in order to add to crew survivability.

Tanks can be manufactured; it is the crew that needs to be protected, as a trained tank crew takes a significant amount of time and resources to train.

Also read: Pakistan's tool of war: Why the Mi-35 Hind-E is an excellent choice

Al-Khalid also comes equipped with a laser warning system, which detects incoming ATGMs and provides the crew with better threat perception. The tank is itself coated in IR (infrared) reflective paint to lower the thermal signature, along with launchers which can launch thermal smoke, chaff and fragmentation grenades.

The latest model of the tank is also rumoured to be equipped with an Active Protection System (APS), which can defeat incoming anti-tank missiles and rocket-propelled grenades (RPG).

New challenges
The Al-Khalid is a capable tank, and would be an adequate match for any adversary it faces in a conventional conflict.

563ce7b727eae.jpg

The Al-Khalid is a capable tank, and would be an adequate match for any adversary it faces in a conventional conflict. — AFP/File


As is the case with any modern MBT, protection levels need to be kept up to pace with developments in the field of anti-tank weapons. With the modern battlefield constantly evolving, tanks are now more vulnerable than ever to both conventional and unconventional forces.

With the massive proliferation of advanced anti-tank weapons, mostly now in the hands of irregular and militant forces (e.g Syria), protecting the tank and especially the crew has become the need of the hour.

As stated earlier, if the later models of the Al-Khalid are not equipped with an APS, it needs to be sourced and installed, or remain quite vulnerable.



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The base of the Div Recce Reg is the Armoured Reg
It consists of the same HQ of two MBTs
It apears that the Squadrons varies in two types:

Type-A (11 MBTs each):
- SHQ of two MBTs
- x3 Armoured Troops of 3
MBTs each
- one Recon Troop of M113

Type-B (8 MBTs each):
- SHQ of two MBTs
- x2 Armoured Troops of 3
MBTs each
- x2 Recon Troops of M113

This later is the more usual, its being used since 1971 war for both Corps & Divisional.
At that time they had Jeeps instead of M113, the TO&E of the Recce Troops was the same of the R&S Platoons.
 
Interesting to note that the Tank Delivery Units of '65 had more or less the same number of tanks as in Recce Rgt.
The base of the Div Recce Reg is the Armoured Reg
It consists of the same HQ of two MBTs
It apears that the Squadrons varies in two types:

Type-A (11 MBTs each):
- SHQ of two MBTs
- x3 Armoured Troops of 3
MBTs each
- one Recon Troop of M113

Type-B (8 MBTs each):
- SHQ of two MBTs
- x2 Armoured Troops of 3
MBTs each
- x2 Recon Troops of M113

This later is the more usual, its being used since 1971 war for both Corps & Divisional.
At that time they had Jeeps instead of M113, the TO&E of the Recce Troops was the same of the R&S Platoons.
 
Pakistan's tool of war: Al-Khalid Main Battle Tank – the armoured fist
Ali Osman
Updated November 10, 2015

563ce72a315ad.jpg

The Armoured Corps is rich in tradition, with storied units still included in its order of battle. — AFP/File
563ce72a315ad.jpg

This article was originally published on November 10, 2015.

If the tanks succeed, then victory follows
-Heinz Guderian

Armoured units are the primary force multipliers utilised by ground forces for offensive actions conducted using the fundamental elements of speed and firepower.

Although tanks were introduced towards the tail-end of the Great War, the fundamentals of armoured warfare came in on their own during the German blitz across Europe and North Africa during World War II, and were later used by the Red Army with the same devastating effect in their march towards Berlin.
Pakistan Army’s Armoured Corps came into being with the creation of Pakistan, and inherited six regiments from the old British Indian Army. The Armoured Corps is rich in tradition, with storied units still included in its order of battle. It is a proud fighting arm of the Pakistani army.

The MBT
The Al-Khalid Main Battle Tank (MBT) forms the backbone of Pakistan Army’s Armoured Corps.

The tank is a result of close collaboration between Heavy Industries Taxila (HIT) of Pakistan and China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO), with the first prototype developed in the early '90s.

The Al-Khalid is a further development of the Chinese Type 90-II tank. The tank is locally produced at the HIT complex, and an estimated 600 vehicles are in service.

Al-Khalid MBT incorporates Russian and Chinese design philosophy in its manufacture. The tank itself is considerably lighter and smaller, incorporating a lower profile when compared to its Western counterparts.

Race across the desert
The Al-Khalid is powered by a Ukrainian 6TD-2 liquid-cooled diesel engine which delivers 1,200 horsepower, propelling the tank to a maximum speed of 70 kilometres per hour. The engine utilises pistons arranged horizontally in an opposed piston configuration, which reduces the size of the engine and fits well inside the medium-sized hull of the vehicle. The same engine is also mounted on Pakistan’s T-80UD MBTs.

Read: Pakistan's tool of war: Agosta 90B, our submarine in the deep

During the design phase, special emphasis was laid on high-performance cooling and air filtering systems to counter the high ambient temperatures and the fine sand which would be encountered in operational areas of Pakistan’s Thar and Cholistan deserts, enabling it to race across the desert to engage the enemy.

563df68f5e330.jpg

Ukrainian 6TD-2 liquid-cooled diesel engine propels the tank to a maximum speed of 70 kilometres per hour — Source: armyrecognition.com


The Al-Khalid is able to cross water obstacles 1.4 metres deep without preparation, and can cross water obstacles to a maximum depth of 5 metres with a snorkel attached.

Armoured fist
The primary task assigned to any MBT is to penetrate enemy lines using violence of action and wreak havoc in the enemy’s rear.

The Al-Khalid is equipped with a 125mm smoothbore main gun, capable of firing a variety of rounds and the 9M119M Refleks (Nato reporting name AT-11 Sniper) anti-tank guided missile, a tandem warhead missile with a range of five kilometres, also fired through the main gun.

The main gun is capable of shooting six to eight rounds per minute. The tank is equipped with a laser rangefinder and a computerised fire control system, with the main gun stabilised on a dual-axis, enabling it to shoot accurately on the move.

539db20e9d854.jpg

Al-Khalid tanks commence their advance during a military exercise. — AFP/File


The gunner and commander have dual day/night sights with thermal imaging, in order to lay accurate fire on both stationary and moving targets at any time of the day. The commander also has a panoramic hunter-killer sight at his disposal, which is used to designate targets for the gunner.

The Al-Khalid also comes equipped with an autoloader, reducing the crew to three, another facet of Russian tank design philosophy which was incorporated into the tank. The Al-Khalid has a 12.7mm heavy machine gun placed on the commander’s cupola, with a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun placed next to the main gun.

The tank is capable of firing the Pakistani Naiza 125mm depleted uranium (DU) round, which maintains a one-shot kill capability.

In short, if the Al-Khalid meets the T-90S Bhisma on the plains of Punjab or the deserts of Sindh, it is more than capable of achieving a one shot kill on its adversary.

Steel plated beast
In terms of protection, the Al-Khalid’s hull is made of hardened steel armour plates placed over Rolled Homogenous Armour (RHA), while the sides and the turret incorporates modular armour, allowing the operator to change damage armoured modules with ease.

The tank is also equipped with Explosive Reactive Armour (ERA) bricks for added protection. ERA bricks cover the turret front, roof, sides and hull glacis.

563de57a17349.jpg

Al-Khalid during a military exercise. — Photo courtesy Pakistan Army


In addition to the capable armour protection, the crew is also protected by a collective NBC (nuclear, biological and chemical) system. The tank incorporates internal fire extinguisher and explosion-suppression systems in order to add to crew survivability.

Tanks can be manufactured; it is the crew that needs to be protected, as a trained tank crew takes a significant amount of time and resources to train.

Also read: Pakistan's tool of war: Why the Mi-35 Hind-E is an excellent choice

Al-Khalid also comes equipped with a laser warning system, which detects incoming ATGMs and provides the crew with better threat perception. The tank is itself coated in IR (infrared) reflective paint to lower the thermal signature, along with launchers which can launch thermal smoke, chaff and fragmentation grenades.

The latest model of the tank is also rumoured to be equipped with an Active Protection System (APS), which can defeat incoming anti-tank missiles and rocket-propelled grenades (RPG).

New challenges
The Al-Khalid is a capable tank, and would be an adequate match for any adversary it faces in a conventional conflict.

563ce7b727eae.jpg

The Al-Khalid is a capable tank, and would be an adequate match for any adversary it faces in a conventional conflict. — AFP/File


As is the case with any modern MBT, protection levels need to be kept up to pace with developments in the field of anti-tank weapons. With the modern battlefield constantly evolving, tanks are now more vulnerable than ever to both conventional and unconventional forces.

With the massive proliferation of advanced anti-tank weapons, mostly now in the hands of irregular and militant forces (e.g Syria), protecting the tank and especially the crew has become the need of the hour.

As stated earlier, if the later models of the Al-Khalid are not equipped with an APS, it needs to be sourced and installed, or remain quite vulnerable.



Related Stories

Pakistan's tool of war: Agosta 90B, our submarine in the deep

Pakistan's tool of war: Why the Mi-35 Hind-E is an excellent choice

Day 2 of IDEAS : Artillery, munition and selfies


It seems two pics are of T-80 UD, not AK.
 
3rd Bde is confirmed!

1st Bde = 2× AR + 1× MIB
2nd Bde = 2× AR + 1× MIB
3rd Bde = 1× AR + 1× MIB

+ Div Recce Regt



*2 Corps IABG disbanded

3rd Bde is also now a heavy brigade. Light brigade concept was done away with couple of years ago.

3rd Bde is confirmed!

1st Bde = 2× AR + 1× MIB
2nd Bde = 2× AR + 1× MIB
3rd Bde = 1× AR + 1× MIB

+ Div Recce Regt



*2 Corps IABG disbanded

And ofcourse, please do add a SP (GM) AD Regiment and a SP Med Artillery Regiment in each of the three brigades.

Great effort bro,just one question.Don't you think they need to add a mechanized infantry battalion to each armoured brigade,from what I remember one of the reasons of the failure of armour during the battle of Khem Karan was the lack of infantry support.

Standard infantry was lacking, not the MIB.

1 Strike Corps:
6 Armd. Div.
17 Inf. Div.
37 Inf. Div.
2 Artillery Div.
1x IABG

2 Strike Corps:
1 Armd. Div.
40 Inf. Div.
1x IABG

V Corps (holding)
16 Inf. Div.
18 Inf. Div.
25 Mech. Div. (Includes 2x IABG and 1x IMBG)
21 Artillery Div.
1x IABG

31 Corps (holding)
26 Mech. Div. (Includes 2x IABG and 1x IMBG)
14 Inf. Div.
35 Inf. Div.

You seem to have missed 19 Div. You may include it in 1 Corps.

Shukria for the Quite informative stuff Signalian. That being said, one thing is annoying me which is why the hell the tank crew is wearing black in the middle of the blazing desert?

Basic and historic reason for the black color is that it hides oil smudges on your overalls which are otherwise inevitable once you are inside or near a tank, with an engine, diesel fuel, multi types of engine poils etc.
 
3rd Bde is also now a heavy brigade. Light brigade concept was done away with couple of years ago.

By having recce regt (35 MBTs) as 6th regt?

And ofcourse, please do add a SP (GM) AD Regiment and a SP Med Artillery Regiment in each of the three brigades.

AD & Arty already mentioned in post #1.

You seem to have missed 19 Div. You may include it in 1 Corps.

19 Div already mentioned as part of 1 Corps in ORBAT posted in Retaking Kashmir thread.

BTW, it has been with 1 Corps for some years now. Did they add an armd regt to it?
 
By having recce regt (35 MBTs) as 6th regt?
19 Div already mentioned as part of 1 Corps in ORBAT posted in Retaking Kashmir thread.
BTW, it has been with 1 Corps for some years now. Did they add an armd regt to it?

Nope, recce regt is the 7 th one. Two regts with each armd bde.

No armr regt with 19 Div yet. But several are available to be used with it in different contingencies.
 
Nope, recce regt is the 7 th one. Two regts with each armd bde.

No armr regt with 19 Div yet. But several are available to be used with it in different contingencies.

Your post is giving me lot of hope :p:, there are 50 armd regts, how do you distribute the remaining 36 among 2× Mech Div's, 5× IABG's and 16× Infantry Div's?
 
One thing confuses me is that why didn't we induct a few more T80UDs in the past!!! These highly versatile beasts form the backbone of our desert strike corps. For the price of a few F16s ,we could have formed another STRIKE CORP. I would be extremely happy if our Generals come out of this defensive mindset. Throughout the military history, offence has always been the best defence.
Maybe i might be jumping the guns a bit too early? PA with all these recent inductions from Italy,China,US and Others might be keeping a very very big surprise for the enemy,You never know!!!
 

Depends how you came up with the figure of 50 regts, 16 Inf DIvs and 5 IABGs.

Inf Div's (except FCNA, 12, 19, 34)

IABG's - 3, 8, 19

and 10, 12 (unless you are counting these two as part of Mech Div's)

Armd regts list (45) is available on pakarmymuseum, 5 more reportedly raised since 2014 of which I have seen one.
 
Inf Div's (except FCNA, 12, 19, 34)

IABG's - 3, 8, 19

and 10, 12 (unless you are counting these two as part of Mech Div's)

Armd regts list (45) is available on pakarmymuseum, 5 more reportedly raised since 2014 of which I have seen one.

I am not counting 10 and 12 as part of Mech Div.

If possible, you may find out that the number of Armd Bdes of PA jumped by a big number in the last 5 years. With this development, NEW armr regts were raised and SEVERAL inf units were converted to MIBs. This all has happened in the last 5 yrs. Where all these new armd bdes went, lets keep this open for discussion.:-)

You may not be able to fit in all the available armr regts in armd bdes since you may not have visibility over the newly raised bdes.
 
Last edited:
Do please 44 Inf Div to your ORBAT as well.
Try finding all Armr Bdes....14, 15,16, 17, etc etc, a long list...... 25, 124....list goes on.....

@Gryphon Surprised?

.....and OF COURSE it was never your intention to make any harmless Indian reader's flesh creep.

We won't be counting sheep jumping over fences to fall asleep any longer, we will be counting armoured brigades jumping over the Jammu Tawi. :undecided::(:o::sick:
 

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