Times of Islamabad

Pakistan Army to acquire 100 state of the art Main Battle Tanks from China

Pakistan Army to acquire 100 state of the art Main Battle Tanks from China

ISLAMABAD – With the intention of achieving a decisive edge against India,the Pakistan Army has constantly been engaged in strengthening its defensepreparedness. Towards this, the Pakistan Air Force will add 62 new JF-17jets in the next three years against India’s 36 Rafale fighter jets.

To overcome its shortage of tanks in the Pakistan Army Armoured Corps, thecountry also intends to add 600 new MBTs over the next few months. It isalready procuring about 100 Chinese VT4 – a third generation MBT with anengine of 1200 horsepower and speed of 70 kilometers per hour.

“Pakistan wants such a tank in which there is a computerized fire controlsystem and would be able to hit targets within a range of 3 to 4 kilometers.

India has also been developing indigenous state-of-art Arjun MBT, anupgraded version of the Arjun Mark-2, which currently undergoing validationtrials. The new generation tanks will be lighter than its present weight of68 tonnes. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) hasalready accepted the upgraded version of Arjun Mark-II.

Indian Army already has over 4,100 MBTs while Pakistan army has nearly 2500tanks.