The Pakistan Ministry of Defence (MoD) has successfully commissioned two indigenously-developed strategic unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), known as Burraq and Shahpar systems, into its armed forces.
The locally-made surveillance-capable UAVs will substantially enhance target acquisition capabilities for the military in real time.
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The Shahpar tactical canard pusher UAV has been developed by the Advance Engineering and Research Organisation, which is part of the state-owned Global Industrial & Defence Solutions (GIDS) conglomerate, according to DefenseNews.
Unveiled for the first time during biannual defense exhibition IDEAS in November 2012, the Shahpar UAV is claimed to be autonomous with an endurance of seven hours.
The Burraq emerges to be a Pakistani variant or development of the Chinese Rainbow CH-3 UCAV, according to observers.
The Pakistan Military Consortium think tank analyst, Usman Shabbir, said Shahpar is capable of carrying a payload of about 50kg and has around eight hours endurance, while Burraq, which is based on CH-3 specifications, can carry around a 100kg payload and has endurance capacity of 12 hours.
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By GlobalData"The army has been using German EMT Luna X-2000 and the British [Meggitt] Banshee UAVs, while PAF as we know has a lot of faith in the Italian [Selex] Falco," Shabbir said.
The Pakistan Army and Air Force will utilise the Burraq and Shahpar unmanned systems.
Image: Pakistan formally inducts surveillance capable UAVs in armed forces. Photo: courtesy of ISPR.
