BEIJING – In what considered to be an unprecedented deal, China has soldPakistan a powerful tracking system that could speed up the Pakistanimilitary’s development of multi-warhead missiles, South China Morning Postreported Thursday.
The report stated that the tracking system could allow Islamabad to speedup development of missile that can target multiple cities or militarysites. Pakistan has become first country in South Asia to acquire multiwarhead targeting capability.
The confirmation of this technology transfer was made in an announcement bythe Chinese authorities on Wednesday.
A statement on the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) website said China wasthe first country to export such sensitive equipment to Pakistan.
Zheng Mengwei, a researcher with the CAS Institute of Optics andElectronics in Chengdu, Sichuan province, confirmed to the Hong Kong basednewspaper that Pakistan had bought a highly sophisticated, large-scaleoptical tracking and measurement system from China.
The Pakistani military recently deployed the Chinese-made system “at afiring range” for use in testing and developing its new missiles, he added.
It has been a long-held notion that Beijing is supporting Islamabad’smissile development programme. But solid evidence can seldom be found inthe public domain, making the CAS statement a rarity.
The Chinese team enjoyed VIP treatment during the nearly three months itspent in Pakistan assembling and calibrating the tracking system andtraining technical staff on how to use it, according to the statement.
“The system’s performance surpassed the user’s expectations,” it said,adding that it was considerably more complex than Pakistan’s home-madesystems. It did not reveal how much Pakistan paid for the system.
An optical system is a critical component in missile testing. It usuallycomes with a pair of high-performance telescopes equipped with a laserranger, high-speed camera, infrared detector and a centralised computersystem that automatically captures and follows moving targets.
The device records high-resolution images of a missile’s departure from itslauncher, stage separation, tail flame and, after the missile re-entersatmosphere, the trajectory of the warheads it releases.