China sells Pak vital tech, can speed up its missile programme

INDIA AND THE U.S. HAVE LONG ACCUSED CHINA OF SUPPORTING PAKISTAN’S MISSILE AND NUCLEAR DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME BUT CREDIBLE EVIDENCE IS RARELY FOUND.

NEW DELHI: China has sold Pakistan a powerful optical tracking and measurement system that could speed up the development of multi-warhead missiles by Islamabad, according to a media report on Thursday.

Chinese authorities declassified information about the deal through a statement on the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) website. The statement, evidence that Beijing is supporting Islamabad’s rapidly developing missile programme, said China is the first country to export such sensitive equipment to Pakistan.

Zheng Mengwei, a researcher with the CAS Institute of Optics and Electronics in Chengdu, Sichuan province, confirmed to the South China Morning Post that Pakistan had bought a “highly sophisticated, large-scale optical tracking and measurement system” from China.

The Pakistani military recently deployed the Chinesemade system “at a firing range” for use in testing and developing its new missiles, Zheng was quoted as saying.

As India has built single-warhead missiles that are bigger and cover longer distances, Pakistan has focused on developing multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRVS), a type of missile carrying multiple nuclear warheads that can be directed towards different targets, the Post reported.

A Chinese team enjoyed “VIP treatment” during the nearly three months it spent in Pakistan assembling and calibrating the tracking system and training technical staff on how to use it, the statement said.

“The system’s performance surpassed the user’s expectations,” it said, adding it was considerably more complex than Pakistan’s home-made systems. The statement did not reveal how much Pakistan paid for the system.