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Made in Pakistan – UAV!

This news item is very interesting and apparently something that has been floating on the internet circles for a long time without coming into my notice.  I must admit that I am amazed every day with the amount of unique knowledge that comes my way when I open the doors of world wide web.  Sometimes I do wonder that it would be a life worth living as ‘John Henry’, from TSCC but then again human brain is a miracle in itself with 20 billion calculations going on simultaneously in an average brain and a potentially limitless memory.  I would not want to trade off mine for a cord connected ‘John Henry’.

Pakistani private sector is shining in the field of arms making and development of low cost alternative solutions to modern warfare.  This should not be something new as Pakistani north is famous for its uniqueness in manufacturing weaponry of every kind from a mere pistol to a rocket launcher.  But things have progressed from the times of the old Afghan war.  Now we have private defense

contractors with very impressive portfolios.  I would link to and copy paste an article that appeared in Dinar Standard and since then has been copy pasted on multiple sites all round the world.

The growing reliance on armed drones (aka Predators) by Americans in Afghanistan and Pakistan's FATA region to target militants has been making headlines with increasing casualties.

This technology of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) or drones designed and manufactured in Pakistan has also been making news since the IDEAS (International Defense Exhibition and Seminar) 2008 event, a 5-day biennial arms show held November last year in Karachi, Pakistan. Among the largest foreign pavilions at the exhibition, Turkey had 28 companies and United States had 22. Other major exhibitors came from China, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, South Korea, South Africa, the Ukraine and the United Kingdom. Among other products, Pakistani companies showed off JF-17 fighter plane built by Pakistan Aeronautical Complex in partnership with China's Chengdu Aircraft, Al-Khalid main battle tank, and a variety of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) designed, developed and built in Pakistan.

Integrated Dynamics is a full-service UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) systems provider based in Karachi, Pakistan. The company has been in business since 1997 and designs and integrates UAV systems primarily for the Government of Pakistan, the Pakistan armed forces and export.

In addition to supplying drones to the Pakistani military, the company exports its products to Australia, Spain, South Korea and Libya and the United States. The US Homeland Security Department uses ID's Border Eagle surveillance drone for border patrol duties.

The complete article can be read here.

A similar article appeared in the Wired magazine.

Since 2002, Pakistan has dramatically expanded its robotic fleet in the sky, Defense News reports. The Pakistani Air Force has two UAV squadrons -- and is looking to build up to six.

So companies like East West Infiniti are building SIGINT [signals intelligence] for small drones and robotic blimps, to capture those conversations.

This article can be read here.

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