Times of India, NEW DELHI: Pakistan may soon acquire Chinese made 'AWACS killer' to counter the Indo-Israel Phalcon Airborne Early Warning Systems, defence experts have claimed.
The FT-2000 surface-to-air missile (SAM), commonly known as 'AWACS killer', designed by Chinese experts were considered to be the most appropriate option, if the US failed to provide similar AWACS to Pakistan, which were being sold to India by Israel under the approval of Washington, reports quoting experts said.
Last week, Israel, Russia, and India sealed the deal on the sale of three Israeli Phalcon radar systems to India. Russia was part of the deal since the radars are fitted into the nose of the Russian built Ilyushin-76 (Il-76) cargo aircraft.
The Phalcon radar would significantly boost Indian intelligence capabilities and is a cause of great concern for Pakistan as India would able to monitor flights deep into Pakistan's territory.
The radar is a highly sophisticated, long-range command and control system with the capability to pick up aircraft signals and enemy transmissions hundreds of miles away.
Moreover, the Phalcon is a force multiplier and will give the Indian Air Force a decisive edge over Pakistan as it will be able to monitor and assess beforehand any Pakistani counter strikes in response to Indian air strikes in Pakistani territory or the PoK.
Confirming China's acquiescence to support Pakistan in dealing with the strategic challenge posed by Indo-Israel military collaboration, the European defence experts told The News that the 'AWACS killer' would play a key role in Pakistan's strategy to counter the Indo-Israel Phalcon deal.
The FT-2000 'AWACS killer', which comprises a truck launcher, has a reliable capacity to engage radiating aircraft such as AWACS.
Pakistan is also considering a project to produce FT-2000 type of missiles, indigenously, the experts claimed.
Pakistan and China have warned that the transfer of AWACS technology to India would challenge the delicate conventional military equilibrium in South Asia.
“High level consultations between Beijing and Islamabad on the Indo-Israel Phalcon deal are in progress as both Pakistan and China, through diplomatic channels, have conveyed to the international community that they would counter the Indian move of acquiring Israeli Phalcon radar system,” a European defence expert monitoring the AWACS-related developments, was quoted by a Pakistani daily.
The Pak-China co-operation on this issue does not come as a surprise since the Pakistani air chief Air Chief Marshal Kaleem Saadat had stated recently that Pakistan would explore all options to counter the India-Israeli Phalcon radar system deal and had claimed that “the nation would hear good news by June 30, 2004”.
According to a defence analyst here, who preferred anonymity, the Indo-Israel deal was definitely going to accelerate the already costly arms race in South Asia.
Observing that Israel was the second largest supplier of defence equipment to New Delhi, he however, said the sophisticated Phalcon system would allow India to guard its skies in an “effective way”.
Last month, Pakistani Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali was in Washington and appealed to the Bush administration to help his country maintain military balance. The US have given a green signal to the sale of two squadrons of F-16s to Pakistan in addition to refurbishing its current stock of F-16s.
