Recent visit of the Chief of the Air Staff Pakistan Air Force to China holds significant importance for both countries, especially their aerospace industry. Besides solidifying bilateral ties between the two friendly nations, and taking the relationship between two air forces to the next level, the visit was very important for the defence development and production particularly within the domain of aerospace.
The Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Sidhu called on the Chinese Defence Minister Admiral Dong Jun and People’s Liberation Army Air Force Commander General Chang Dingqiu. He also met with the Director General Bureau of Military Equipment and Technical Cooperation (BOMETEC), Major General Cao Xiaojian. Besides other areas of mutual interests, Issues pertaining to technology transfer and possibilities of collaboration in advance military hardware development were discussed during the meetings. In a separate meeting with the leadership of Chinese defence industry, the companies were invited to invest in National Aerospace and Technology Park (NASTP), Pakistan.
China’s aerospace industry, particularly in the military domain, has progressed at a remarkable pace over last few decades. While the big companies make rapid strides in developing high-tech fighter jets, avionics equipment, cyber / space / security technologies, air defence sensors, various offensive and defensive weapons and electronic warfare capabilities; many small enterprises, looking for horizontal growth, want to invest in this profitable sector.
Chinese companies should find it attractive to invest in Pakistan at this point in time. NASTP provides a framework and environment for collaborative development and production. Various international companies of the US, Western and Turkish origin, including few big companies from China have already shown interest and entered the arena.
Pakistan owns a decent industrial set up in public as well as private sector. The public sector entities have piled up lot of experience over decades in life cycle support and production. They lack design and development expertise and have strong desire for vertical growth in this area. Small scale private enterprises on the other hand want to pursue production tasks, primarily because of resource constraints. Additionally, a pool of well-trained and highly skilled engineers and technicians is available after their retirement from PAF. After retirement at a relatively younger age and associated social / domestic considerations they are mostly reluctant to seek job opportunities abroad, despite having a high value skill set. Therefore, the international companies opting to invest in NASTP will conveniently be able to find local partners, structures and human resource required to get a jump start.
The qualification and operationalisation of military equipment, besides being an essential part of development process, is a challenging affair. Specialised structures, along with experienced human resource possessing technical skill set are required to undertake the testing regimes during the qualification process. In China these capabilities are available only with PLAAF, creating bottlenecks for the local companies, forcing them to wait in a queue for qualification effort, causing unnecessary delays to the project and adding to the overall development cost. PAF has piled up a valuable experience of providing qualification effort to various Chinese state-owned companies. NASTP can provide effective interface to the Chinese companies with PAF for the qualification requirements.
Another advantage for the companies operating under the NASTP framework is that the buyers in Pakistan would be more inclined to buy jointly developed product based on quality and merit, as compared to international competitors for two reasons. Firstly, as part of the development process, the local buyers may have greater trust and confidence in the locally developed product. Secondly, the contract will be negotiated in local currency.
To maintain certain force ratios with financial constraints, depending upon the threat perception, PAF has always endeavored to maintain an element of high-tech combat equipment from the US or Western origin. A look at the recent PAF procurements from China, it seems that the Chinese companies might be able to market their products in the local market, which will also pave the way for international marketing, especially in developing countries.
Certainly, the recent Air Chief’s visit to China, meetings with his counterparts and the leaders of Chinese aerospace industry, will add momentum to the ongoing development of NASTP. One window operation for the companies aspiring to invest in Pakistan is in place. Necessary government clearances have already been secured. Structures are being developed at a quick pace. Local players are visibly excited to embrace their international counterparts. Aware of the local requirements, various public as well as private sector companies have already initiated the spade work for collaborative tasks. Design, development and production activities kicking off should, therefore, attract international players, including Chinese companies, to move in and establish themselves quickly.
Air Marshal Irfan Ahmad (Retd) is Director at the Centre for Aerospace and Security Studies (CASS), Lahore, Pakistan. He can be reached at [email protected]