‘Pak plans to procure 600 battle tanks’

NEW DELHI: At a time when modernisation of the Army’s armoured corps is moving at a “snail’s pace”, Pakistan has drawn up a mega plan to procure nearly 600 modern battle tanks, including the T-90s from Russia, primarily to bolster its combat prowess along the Line of Actual Control in Jammu and Kashmir, military and intelligence sources said Sunday.

Most of the tanks Pakistan was procuring are likely to have features like state-of-the-art computerised fire control system for increased accuracy and they will be able to hit targets within a range of 3 to 4 kms, the sources told PTI.

Some of the tanks are set to be deployed along the Line of Control and they will have wider features for battlefield effectiveness, they added.

Apart from the battle tanks, the Pakistan Army is also procuring 245 150mm SP Mike-10 guns from Italy. It has already received 120 guns of those.

The sources said Pakistan was eyeing to buy from Russia a batch of T-90 battle tanks — the mainstay of the armoured regiments of the Indian Army — and that the move reflects Islamabad’s intent to forge a deeper defence engagement with Moscow which has been India’s largest defence supplier for decades. Pakistan has been holding joint military drills with Russia in the last couple of years besides eyeing to purchase Russian platforms, triggering some concerns in New Delhi. The sources said as part of the ambitious plan to significantly revamp its armoured fleet by 2025, Pakistan has decided to procure at least 360 battle tanks from leading global manufacturers and produce 220 tanks indigenously with help from China.

The Pakistan Army’s move to enhance its armoured corps comes at a time the Line of Actual control in Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed growing hostilities, especially over the last one year.

But, when the Indian Army is focused on counter-terror operations, the Pakistan Army was fast reducing its gap with Indian forces in fighting a conventional war, the intelligence sources said, adding Islamabad was also gradually increasing its missile regiments.

Military sources said modernisation of the Indian Army’s armoured regiments was moving at a “snail’s pace” due to procedural delays and the issue is being examined at a very high level of the government.