Pakistan’s army on Tuesday inducted a Chinese-origin main battle tank inits armored division, the military said.
The VT-4 integrates advanced armor protection, maneuverability, firepowercapabilities and state-of-the-art technology, it said in a statement.
Gen. Qamar Bajwa, Pakistan’s army chief, visited field firing ranges nearnortheastern Jhelum district — 116 Kilometers (72 miles) from the capitalIslamabad — to witness demonstration of the “potent war fighting machine.”
He said Pakistan Army is cognizant of emerging challenges and regionalthreats. “We are completely focused towards internal and externalchallenges to the defense of our country, and prepared with matchingresponse against all threats to sovereignty, security and territorialintegrity of Pakistan,“ he said in a thinly-veiled reference to arch-rivalIndia.
Pakistan and India have long been locked in an intense arms race, withseveral “successful” missile tests in recent years.
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Their armies, for decades, have faced off across the Line of Control, a defacto border that divides the disputed Kashmir region between the twoneighbors.
In July, Pakistan inducted in its Armored Corps an improved version of theindigenously developed Al-Khalid-1, a main battle tank developed in a jointventure with China and Ukraine.
