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First in a three part Briefing Series comparing Pakistan versus India from the military viewpoint, with research conducted in open sources online which include archives of printed sources such as periodicals, newsletters, official (public) reports, and newspapers.  This first part in the series documents the basics of the Pakistani military.  The second part will discuss similar details of the military in India.  The third part of the series will go into an in-depth analysis of the two militaries, comparing and commenting on the strengths and weaknesses of each.

This is an excerpt from the full report, section 1, Pakistan.
 
 

Pakistan  

The country of Pakistan was established on August 14, 1947.  The Pakistan military consists of the Army and Air Force. One year after winning its independence, India attacked and seized the province of Kashmir, an area still in dispute between Pakisatan, India, and China.

. . .

Pakistani Army

The Pakistani Army reports to the Chief of the Army Staff headquartered in Rawalpindi with four staff officers (typically Major Generals) reporting:

• Chief of the General Staff
• Adjutant General
• Quartermaster General
• General of Ordnance

• Infantry
• Artillery
• Armor
• Engineers
• Communications

• Ordnance Corps
• Maintenance and Repair corps
• Electrical and mechanical Engineer Corps
• Education Corps (training)
• Military Police Corps
• Remount, Veterinary, and Farm Corps

. . .
 

EQUIPMENT:

• Main Battle Tanks:200 T-85II APs, 51 T-55s, 250 T-69s, 1200 T-59s, 100 T-60/63s, 450 M-47/48s (being withdrawn) Work completed on MBT-2000 Al-Khalid.

• Anti-Tank: AH-1 Cobras, 5500 TOWs & TOW-Iis. Armoured Personnel Carriers 800 M113s, 120 BTR 70s.  M113s Manufactured at Heavy Industries Taxila.

• Artillery: AMERICAN: 105/150/255 mm Self Propelled and Towed Howitzers. Also 85mm/122mm CHINESE guns. Old 25 pounders. Some Bofors. Additional M-198 Howitzers being delivered from the US under the Brown Amendment

• Army Aviation:20 AH-1 COBRA Gunships, Mi-8s, French Alloute IIIs, PUMAs, Mi-17s, UH-1s, Bell-47, Cessna O-1Es

• Army Air Defence: AA guns ZU-23/33 30, 36, 37mm. SAMs CROTALEs, 400 RBS-20, SAM-7, STINGERS, Anza mk II

• Surface-to-Surface Missiles Work Stopped on indegenous HATF-I,II Reportedly CHINESE M-11s acquired  clandestinely from China. Local Production of M113A2.

Source World Defense Almanac as reported on the Pakpal site on Geocities

Pakistani Air Force (65,000 active, 8,000 reserves)

The Pakistani Air Force is a small, mostly outdated Air Force comprised of weapons systems purchased from typical sources for third world, non-western allied sources.  This includes aircraft primarily from China and a few from France.  The U.S. added some Airborne Early Warning and air defenseaircraft in recent years as rewards/bribes to help stablize relations between Pakistan and India as well as an incentive to Pakistan to join test ban and non-proliferation treaties following the underground tests of nuclear weapons.

. . .
 

The Air Force is organized into 20 squadrons containing some 504 aircraft.
 
 

Cnt	Designation	Description	Nuc Capable	Speed	Range
4	E-2C	Airborne Early Warning (AEW)
4	E-3A	Airborne Early Warning (AEW)
3	P-3C Orien	Anti-Submarine Warfare Patrol	5-20KT	550kts	18 hours flight time
29	F-16A Falcon	Air Defense(FTR)	5-40KT	M2.0	850km
11	F-16B Trainer
58	Mirage V	Ground Attack Fighter (FTR-BMR)	5-40KT	M2.2	500km
110	Mirage III	Ground Attack Fighter (FTR-BMR)
12	Mirage III RP	Reconaissance and Patrol
49	Chinese A5c	Ground Attack Fighter (FTR-BMR)	5-20KT	M1.12	600km
135	Chinese Q5	Ground Attack Fighter (FTR-BMR)
50	Chinese J6	Fighter Interceptor (FTR)
160	Chinese F-7P	Fighter Interceptor (FTR) (mod MIG-21)
53	T-37	Flight Trainer
16	C-130 Hercules	Transport/Cargo
3	Boeing 707	VIP Transport	1MT	560 kts	3000 miles

From the Federation of American Scientists online and the Pakistani Air Defense Institute online

A later article on nuclear delivery systems from FAS indicates the total inventory in 2001 of Mirage fighters is now near 150.  The FAS also reports that Pakistan has purchased and received some 28 Harpoon (AGM-84) anit-shipping missiles, 360 AIM-9L sidewinder and three P-3C aircraft.

The F-16A count is not verified -- may be confused with undelivered aircraft purchased but not delivered during Clinton administration.  However, the Pakistani No. 9 and No. 11 are supposed to be flying F-16 As with the No. l1 squadron also flying the B model for training.

. . .
 

Missiles

The following table indicates the Pakistani Missile Inventory including missiles under test or are suspected:
 

Cnt	Designation	Range (km)	Warhead Capable	Notes
few	Hatf-1	60-100
few	Hatf-2	280
30-80	Shaheen (Hatf-3)	300	5-20KT
Tested	Shaheen-I	800
Design	Shaheen-II	2000
few	Ghauri (Hatf-5)	1500	5-100KT	NoDong (N.Korea), Shebab-3 (Iran)
Tested	Ghauri-III	2500
Dev	Tipu	4000
Dev	Ghaznavi	x000s

From the Federation of American Scientists online, verifed by various public non-proliferation studies including the "The Rumsfeld Report" - The Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missle Threat to the United States and U.S.'s annual report for 2001, Non-Proliferation:  Threat and Response.
 
 

NBC Weapons Status

Nuclear

The Pakistani NBC situation  is first and foremost, a known nuclear nation with six underground blasts concluded in 1998.  According to the U.S.'s annual report for 2001, Non-Proliferation:  Threat and Response,

"Capable of manufacturing complete sets of components for highly enriched uranium-based nuclear weapons; capability to produce plutonium weapons.  Has small stockpiles of nuclear weapons components and can probably assemble some weapons fairly quickly.  It can deliver them with fighter aircraft and possibly missiles.  Has signed neither the NTP nor the CTBT."

Pakistan is believed not to have a chemical weapons program (unclassified viewpoint).  According to the U.S.'s annual report for 2001, Non-Proliferation:  Threat and Response,

"Improving commercial chemical industrym which would be able to support precursor chemical  production.  Ratifed the CWC but did not declare any chemical agent production.  Opened facilities to inspection."

Pakistan is believed to be capable of but not suspected of having a biological warfare program.  According to the U.S.'s annual report for 2001, Non-Proliferation:  Threat and Response,

"Believed to have capabilities to support a limited biological warfare research effort.  Ratified the BWC."

Pakistan can deliver weapons via fighter aircraft and ground systems, inlcluding artillery.  Missile programs are capable, however it is not clear warheads have been fitted and there is no verifiable public evidence that Pakistan has tested a dummy warhead proving delivery systems for nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.
 

Proliferation

Pakistan is believed to be an exporter to both Iran and Iraq and importer from France and China, and early on from Russia.  Having refused to sign the NPT, the Pakistani proliferation of anything they have has been demonstrated in a number of countries -- with interception of shipments implying a prolific traffic in nuclear weapons research and components.  Pakistan may be the number exporter of nuclear material both waste, reactor grade, and weapons grade materials.

Sources:

Source World Defense Almanac as reported on the Pakpal site on Geocities
Federation of American Scientists
"The Rumsfeld Report" - The Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missle Threat to the United States
The Pakistani Army Web Page online
Pakistani Air Defense Institute online
U.S.'s annual report for 2001,  Non-Proliferation:  Threat and Response
 
 

 © Copyright, 2001, Michael Crawford, MILNET
 

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