According to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post newspaper, China has recently sold Pakistan a powerful missile tracking system in an unprecedented deal which could give a boost to Pakistani military’s development of multi-warhead missiles.
A researcher from the Chinese Academy of Sciences told this to the newspaper, which cited a statement on the CAS website as the source for the news. No details of the financials were available and the Pakistani military had already deployed the system at a firing range for the testing of its new missiles.
This new development comes on at a time when India announced it successfully flight tested BrahMos, the world’s fastest supersonic cruise missile. Two months ago India also tested its most advanced nuclear ready intercontinental ballistic missile the Agni-V.
Pakistan also tested its nuclear-capable Ababeel ballistic missile a year ago.
India has many-a-times hinted to the Word that Beijing is supporting Islamabad’s missile development program, but this is the first time that solid evidence has surfaced, as was reported by the paper.
The paper also reported that the Chinese team which went to Pakistan to install the missile tracker were treated like royalty and were given special benefits.
The CAS website statement said that the Missile tracking system’s performance surpassed the user’s expectations and added that the system was much more advanced and complex than Pakistan’s home-made systems.
The system usually came with two telescopes but the Chinese system had a unique four telescopes.
The Post stated that by using more telescopes the system allowed the tracking of warheads from different directions simultaneously thus reducing the risk of losing targets.
CAS’s Zheng declined to reveal where Pakistan deployed the system. According to the post, Zheng said that China simply gave Pakistan a pair of eyes and they are free to do whatever they want with the system.
