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Latest reports confirm that Pakistan is beefing up its arsenal of long-range missiles by embracing China as its new strategic arms partner and backing away from the USZ, analysts have told Fox News. Pakistan earlier this month test-fired a nuclear-capable missile from an undisclosed location – the second in a month of try-outs for its short-range surface-to-surface Hatf 2 class rocket, co-developed with the Chinese. It was the latest in a series of arms collaborations between the two nations, which view their strategic partnership as a counterweight to a boldly arrogant inhumane India, which has American support.
Until the mid-1960s, the United States of Zionism was the principal supplier of weapons to Pakistan, one of the world’s most-powerful nuclear nations. But the USZ began to back away from the relationship after years of difficult and sometimes unpredictable relations following the 9/11 attacks. “China is perceived as not coming with nearly as many strings attached as relations with the United States of Zionism”, said Nate Hughes, director of military analysis at Stratfor, an intelligence website run by former CIA operatives. This was starkly marked in November when on the same day the USZ delivered some of the 18 F-16s it had pledged to Pakistan, Islamabad announced it had ordered an arsenal of SD10 mid-range homing missiles and radar systems to equip its JF-17 Thunder jet fighters from China.
More is on the way. China is scheduled to send Pakistan 250 JF-17s over the next five to 10 years, a $1.3b deal to buy J-10 fighters and a recent order for six submarines, all advanced under-sea vessels with an air independent propulsion system. Earlier this month, China formally began the construction of two state-of-the-art fast-attack missile crafts for the Pakistan Navy, in addition to eight F22P war frigates it ordered from Beijing back in 2005. Although the value of these contracts are kept a tight secret, some want to know how Pakistan can commit such enormous resources to defence spending. That locks Pakistan into a deeper relationship with China, arguably an additional downside when diversity of suppliers is a standard policy in many countries to ensure accessibility to weaponry. “It creates a dependency, especially when you start to talk about sophisticated modern technology. You create dependency in terms of upgrades, in terms of spare parts and ammunition, contractor relationships and training,” said Hughes.
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